Systems and methods of virtual world interaction

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods of virtual world interaction, operation, implementation, instantiation, creation, and other functions related to virtual worlds (note that where the term “virtual world” is used herein, it is to be understood as referring to virtual world systems, virtual environments reflecting real, simulated, fantasy, or other structures, and includes information systems that utilize interaction within a 3D environment). Various embodiments facilitate interoperation between and within virtual worlds, and may provide consistent structures for operating virtual worlds. The disclosed embodiments may further enable individuals to build new virtual worlds within a framework, and allow third party users to better interact with those worlds.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims a priority benefit fromU.S. application Ser. No. 13/590,187, filed on Aug. 20, 2012, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/524,956, filed Aug. 18, 2011. The aforementioned applications arehereby incorporated by reference in their entireties as if set forthherein. Any and all priority claims identified in the Application DataSheet, or any correction thereto, are hereby incorporated by referenceunder 37 C.F.R. §1.57.

BACKGROUND

Information, graphical and other content on the Internet today isprimarily presented in two-dimensional form, such as web pages (the“Flat Web”). Efforts have been made to introduce three-dimensionalworlds to existing technology, but those have treated the threedimensional environment as a game or limited application utility, suchas a three dimensional rending of a car based on user inputs made to acar manufacturer's website. Furthermore, extent three-dimensional worldsystems are monolithic and typically controlled, operated, and managedby a single entity and limited to a scope far smaller than the Flat Web.Accordingly, development of a widely scoped three dimensionalinformation system, whether denominated as a virtual world system or the“3D Web”, has been precluded by the narrow scope of those systems, theoften idiosyncratic policies and interfaces implemented by the managersof those systems, and the lack of innovative technological solutionsnecessary to overcome extent technological barriers to implementation.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, disclosed herein are systems and methods of virtual worldinteraction, operation, implementation, instantiation, creation, andother functions related to virtual worlds (note that where the term“virtual world” is used herein, it is to be understood as referring tovirtual world systems, virtual environments reflecting real, simulated,fantasy, or other structures, and includes information systems thatutilize interaction within a 3D environment). Various embodimentsfacilitate interoperation between and within virtual worlds, and mayprovide consistent structures for operating virtual worlds. Thedisclosed embodiments may further enable individuals to build newvirtual worlds within a framework, and allow third party users to betterinteract with those worlds.

An embodiment is a method of communicating user data between virtualworlds systems. The method is performed on a virtual worlds server. Thevirtual worlds server, which includes one or more processors, receives arequest for a transfer of an avatar from an external virtual worldsserver. The virtual worlds server determines authorization rights of theavatar to access the virtual worlds server. The virtual worlds servercompletes a transfer protocol with the external virtual worlds server.The virtual worlds server converts characteristics associated with theavatar based on one or more conversion rules associated with the virtualworlds server. The virtual worlds server engages the avatar forinteraction with one or more worlds on the virtual worlds server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, completing thetransfer protocol comprises performing a cryptographically securetransfer configured to inhibit the avatar from appearing in multiplevirtual worlds simultaneously.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, converting thecharacteristics comprises matching the characteristics with comparablecharacteristics permitted by the virtual worlds server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, converting thecharacteristics further comprises determining a difference in valuebetween the characteristics and the comparable characteristics, andproviding a credit accounting for the difference in value.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, matching thecharacteristics comprises analyzing one or more attributes of thecharacteristics and one or more attributes of the comparablecharacteristics.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, matching thecharacteristics comprises processing one or more local-to-localconversion agreement rules associated with the virtual worlds server andthe external virtual worlds server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the externalvirtual worlds server is housed on the same computing device as thevirtual worlds server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, converting thecharacteristics comprises modifying a global avatar state associatedwith the avatar to reflect the conversion of the characteristics.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, converting thecharacteristics comprises storing a local avatar state associated withthe avatar to reflect the conversion of the characteristics. A globalavatar state associated with the avatar need not be modified.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, converting thecharacteristics comprises modifying one or more of the characteristicsbased on a previously stored local avatar state associated with theavatar. Effects of previous activities of the avatar on the virtualworlds server may be restored to the avatar.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to communicate user databetween virtual worlds systems. The computer system includescomputer-readable storage having stored thereon a plurality of modulesimplemented as executable instructions. The computer system includes oneor more computer processors configured to execute the plurality ofmodules. The computer system includes a transfer receipt moduleconfigured to receive a request for a transfer of an avatar from anexternal virtual worlds server. The computer system includes anauthorization module configured to determine authorization rights of theavatar to access the virtual worlds server. The computer system includesa transfer module configured to complete a transfer protocol with theexternal virtual worlds server. The computer system includes aconversion module configured to convert characteristics associated withthe avatar based on one or more conversion rules associated with thevirtual worlds server. The computer system includes an interactionmodule configured to engage the avatar for interaction with one or moreworlds on the virtual worlds server.

An embodiment is a method of determining permissibility of actionswithin a virtual world. The service provider identifies, by a serviceprovider comprising computing hardware, an attempt by a virtual worldentity to take an action upon an object within a virtual world. Theservice provider selects one or more gatekeeper objects havingpermission rules configured to determine permissibility of the action tobe taken by the virtual world entity on the object. The permission rulesincludes one or more of an avatar matching component, an action matchingcomponent, and an object matching component. The service provideriterates through one or more of the gatekeeper objects to identify oneor more applicable permission rules based on the virtual world entity,the action to be taken, and the object to be acted upon. The serviceprovider determines whether the action is permitted based on the one ormore applicable permission rules. The service provider automaticallypermits or disallows the action based on the determination of whetherthe action is permitted.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the gatekeeperobjects comprise a service provider, a virtual world, and a scene withinthe virtual world.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the gatekeeperobjects include the object being acted upon.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the permissionrules further include an indication of whether to inherit permissibilityfrom a parent gatekeeper object.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the permissionrules further indicate whether each permission rule may be overridden bya subsequent permission rule.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, identifying theattempt comprises receiving, from a user computer, a request to performthe action on the object.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the requestidentifies a script to be executed. The script is associated with theobject.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the requestidentifies a modification to an element of a document structureassociated with the object.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to determinepermissibility of actions within a virtual world. The computer systemincludes computer-readable storage having stored thereon a plurality ofmodules implemented as executable instructions. The computer systemincludes one or more computer processors configured to execute theplurality of modules. The computer system includes an actionidentification module configured to identify an attempt by a virtualworld entity to take an action upon an object within a virtual world.The computer system includes a gatekeeper selection module configured toselect one or more gatekeeper objects having permission rules configuredto determine permissibility of the action to be taken by the virtualworld entity on the object. The permission rules includes one or more ofan avatar matching component, an action matching component, and anobject matching component. The computer system includes a ruleapplication module configured to iterate through one or more of thegatekeeper objects to identify one or more applicable permission rulesbased on the virtual world entity, the action to be taken, and theobject to be acted upon. The computer system includes a permissiondetermination module configured to determine whether the action ispermitted based on the one or more applicable permission rules. Thecomputer system includes a rule execution module configured toautomatically permit or disallow the action based on the determinationof whether the action is permitted.

An embodiment is a method of operating executable scripts on a virtualworlds system to enable automation of actions on a virtual worldssystem. The virtual worlds system maintains, on computer-readable media,a data representation of a virtual space. The data representationincludes a hierarchical representation of objects within the virtualspace. The hierarchical representation includes an executable scriptassociated with a first object within the hierarchical representation.The virtual worlds system executes the executable script on one or morecomputer processors in communication with the computer-readable media.The virtual worlds system enables the executable script to modify asecond object within the hierarchical representation, based on adetermination that the second object is the same as or a descendant ofthe first object with which the executable script is associated. Thevirtual worlds system prevents the executable script from modifying athird object within the hierarchical representation, based on adetermination that the third object is not the same as or a descendantof the first object with which the executable script is associated.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the hierarchicalrepresentation of objects is associated with a document object model.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the script ismaintained as a subelement of the first object in the hierarchicalrepresentation.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes enabling the executable script to invoke a second executablescript associated with the third object. The executable script mayindirectly modify the third object through invocation of the secondexecutable script.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the executablescript invokes the second executable script by executing a functionnaming an action identifier associated with the second executablescript.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to operate executablescripts on a virtual worlds system to enable automation of actions onthe virtual worlds system. The computer system includescomputer-readable storage having stored thereon a plurality of modulesimplemented as executable instructions. The computer system includes oneor more computer processors configured to execute the plurality ofmodules. The computer system includes stored computer data comprising adata representation of a virtual space. The data representation includesa hierarchical representation of objects within the virtual space. Thehierarchical representation includes an executable script associatedwith a first object within the hierarchical representation. The computersystem includes a script execution module configured to execute theexecutable script on one or more computer processors in communicationwith the computer-readable media. The computer system includes an objectmodification module configured to enable the executable script to modifya second object within the hierarchical representation, based on adetermination that the second object is the same as or a descendant ofthe first object with which the executable script is associated. Theobject modification module is further configured to prevent theexecutable script from modifying a third object within the hierarchicalrepresentation, based on a determination that the third object is notthe same as or a descendant of the first object with which theexecutable script is associated.

An embodiment is a method of representing a three-dimensional space viaa computer network. A virtual worlds service provider configured tooperate a three-dimensional virtual world receives a request for accessto the three-dimensional virtual world. The virtual worlds serviceprovider determines whether the request should be served withthree-dimensional virtual world data or a two-dimensional representationof the three-dimensional virtual world data. The determination is basedon the content of the request for access. The virtual worlds serviceprovider, in response to determining that the request should be servedwith three-dimensional virtual world data, transmits the threedimensional virtual world data. The virtual worlds service provider, inresponse to determining that the request should be served with atwo-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional virtual worlddata, generates a two-dimensional representation based on the existingstate of the three-dimensional virtual world, and transmits userinterface data including the two-dimensional representation. The userinterface data includes executable code configured to enable a user tointeract with the three-dimensional virtual world using atwo-dimensional interface.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, determining whetherthe request should be served with three-dimensional virtual world dataor a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional virtualworld data comprises determining a protocol associated with the request.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, determining whetherthe request should be served with three-dimensional virtual world dataor a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional virtualworld data comprises determining a user agent associated with therequest.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, generating thetwo-dimensional representation comprises identifying a vantage pointwithin the three-dimensional virtual world and transmitting atwo-dimensional rendering of the virtual world based on the identifiedvantage point.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the vantage pointis identified based on an identifier in the request.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the executable codeis configured to present a chat interface enabling the user to send andreceive messages within the three-dimensional virtual world.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes inserting an avatar representation into the three-dimensionalvirtual world in response to determining that the request should beserved with a two-dimensional representation. The avatar representationis configured to indicate that the user associated with the avatar isaccessing the two-dimensional representation.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the user interfacedata is configured to be indexable by a search engine.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to represent athree-dimensional space via a computer network. The computer systemincludes computer-readable storage having stored thereon a plurality ofmodules implemented as executable instructions. The computer systemincludes one or more computer processors configured to execute theplurality of modules. The computer system includes a request processingmodule configured to receive a request for access to thethree-dimensional virtual world. The computer system includes adimensionality assessment module configured to determine whether therequest should be served with three-dimensional virtual world data or atwo-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional virtual worlddata. The determination is based on the content of the request foraccess. The computer system includes a three-dimensional content moduleconfigured to respond to a determination that the request should beserved with three-dimensional virtual world data, by transmitting thethree dimensional virtual world data. The computer system includes atwo-dimensional content module configured to respond to a determinationthat the request should be served with a two-dimensional representationof the three-dimensional virtual world data, by generating atwo-dimensional representation based on the existing state of thethree-dimensional virtual world, and transmitting user interface dataincluding the two-dimensional representation. The user interface dataincludes executable code configured to enable a user to interact withthe three-dimensional virtual world using a two-dimensional interface.

An embodiment is a method of arranging objects within athree-dimensional virtual space. The method is performed on a virtualworlds service provider. The virtual worlds service provider maintains,on a service provider comprising one or more computer processors, aninstance of a virtual world scene comprising a plurality of objects in afirst spatial arrangement. The virtual worlds service provideridentifies a first object of the plurality of objects. The first objecthas a first spatial position. The virtual worlds service providercompares the first spatial position of the first object to an originalspatial position associated with the first object. The virtual worldsservice provider computes a transition path for replacing the firstobject from the first spatial position to the original spatial position,based on the comparison of the first spatial position of the firstobject and the original spatial position. The virtual worlds serviceprovider automatically transitions the first object based on thecomputed transition path.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, automaticallytransitioning the first object comprises causing the first object toautonomously transport along the computed transition path.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, automaticallytransitioning the first object comprises introducing a non-playercharacter to transition the first object based on the computedtransition path.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the non-playercharacter is configurable by an operator of the three-dimensionalvirtual space.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the originalspatial position is associated with the virtual world scene.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, automaticallytransitioning the first object comprises determining a speed fortransitioning the first object and transitioning the first object basedon the determined speed.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the speed isdetermined at least in part based on the number of avatars present inthe instance of the virtual world scene.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to arrange objects withina three-dimensional virtual space. The computer system includescomputer-readable storage having stored thereon a plurality of modulesimplemented as executable instructions. The computer system includes oneor more computer processors configured to execute the plurality ofmodules. The computer system includes stored data representing aninstance of a virtual world scene comprising a plurality of objects in afirst spatial arrangement. The computer system includes an objectidentification module configured to identify a first object of theplurality of objects. The first object has a first spatial position. Thecomputer system includes a position comparison module configured tocompare the first spatial position of the first object to an originalspatial position associated with the first object. The computer systemincludes a path computation module configured to compute a transitionpath for replacing the first object from the first spatial position tothe original spatial position, based on the comparison of the firstspatial position of the first object and the original spatial position.The computer system includes a path execution module configured toautomatically transition the first object based on the computedtransition path.

An embodiment is a method of interoperating between two-dimensional andthree-dimensional representations of a virtual world. The systemreceives, from a client computer, a request for access to a virtualworld. The request indicates a location in the virtual world to beaccessed. The system determines that a two-dimensional representation ofthe virtual world should be served to the client computer, based oncontent of the received request for access. The system transmits, to theclient computer, two-dimensional content representing the virtual world.The two-dimensional content comprises an indicator configured to causethe client computer to invoke a virtual world browser configured toprocess three-dimensional content. The indicator is further configuredto cause the virtual world browser to access a location in the virtualworld corresponding to the location in the virtual world indicated inthe received request for access.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the indicatorcomprises a tag within HTML content transmitted to the client computer.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the tag includes aURL identifying a protocol associated with the virtual world browser.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the indicator isconfigured to cause the virtual world browser to display thethree-dimensional content in a flippable interface enabling a user ofthe client computer to switch between the two-dimensional representationand the three-dimensional content.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, determining thatthe two-dimensional representation of the virtual world should be servedcomprises determining a user agent associated with the request foraccess.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, determining thatthe two-dimensional representation of the virtual world should be servedcomprises determining a protocol associated with the request for access.

An embodiment is a computer system configured to interoperate betweentwo-dimensional and three-dimensional representations of a virtualworld. The computer system includes computer-readable storage havingstored thereon a plurality of modules implemented as executableinstructions. The computer system includes one or more computerprocessors configured to execute the plurality of modules. The computersystem includes a request processing module configured to receive, froma client computer, a request for access to a virtual world. The requestindicates a location in the virtual world to be accessed. The computersystem includes a dimensionality assessment module configured todetermine that a two-dimensional representation of the virtual worldshould be served to the client computer, based on content of thereceived request for access. The computer system includes atwo-dimensional content module configured to transmit, to the clientcomputer, two-dimensional content representing the virtual world. Thetwo-dimensional content comprises an indicator configured to cause theclient computer to invoke a virtual world browser configured to processthree-dimensional content. The indicator is further configured to causethe virtual world browser to access a location in the virtual worldcorresponding to the location in the virtual world indicated in thereceived request for access.

An embodiment is a method, which may be performed by a computer systemfor example. The system instantiates, in one or more computer memories,an instance of a three-dimensional scene defined by a collection ofdocument objects. The document objects are encoded in a descriptivelanguage and define respective three dimensional modeled objects orspaces. The system controls contents of the collection of documentobjects in response to signals received by a processor from one or moreclient devices. The system records, in the one or more computermemories, a sequence of three-dimensional scene states based onrespective states of the scene at successive times of a time sequence,including at least position and orientation of three-dimensional objectsmodeled in the scene. The system provides data representing the sequenceof three-dimensional scene states to the one or more clients.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes instantiating the instance of the scene at least in part byinstantiating ones of the document objects in the collection.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes instantiating at least one of the document objects at least inpart by creating, from a document template received by the processor, acopy of the at least one of the document objects in the collection ofdocument objects.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes organizing the collection of document objects in a hierarchicaltree based on document object properties.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes installing one or more components in the one or more computermemories adapted for supporting the instance of the scene, in responseto receiving an instruction from a server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes controlling the collection of document objects at least in partby detecting, using the one or more components executing by theprocessor, ones of the signals signifying events corresponding to onesof the document objects.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes generating an information signal in response to the detectingthe ones of the signals signifying events, and transmitting theinformation signal to the server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes communicating with the server using the one of more componentsexecuting by the processor to determine respective outcomes of theevents.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes updating states of one or more of the document objects in thecollection, according to the respective outcomes.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes formatting the data into a format enabling a three-dimensionalanimated display of the scene for a user interface of the one or moreclients.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the method alsoincludes interpreting the document objects according to the markuplanguage selected from the group consisting of: a Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML) object, an Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)or Extensible Markup Language (XML).

An embodiment is an apparatus comprising a processor coupled to amemory. The memory holds instructions that when executed by theprocessor, cause the apparatus to perform operations. The apparatusinstantiates an instance of a three-dimensional scene defined by acollection of document objects. The document objects are encoded in amarkup language and define respective three-dimensional modeled objectsor spaces. The apparatus controls contents of the collection of documentobjects in response to signals from one or more client devices. Theapparatus records a sequence of three-dimensional scene states based onrespective states of the scene at successive times of a time sequence,including at least position and orientation of three-dimensional objectsmodeled in the scene. The apparatus provides data representing thesequence of three-dimensional scene states to the one or more clients.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for instantiating the instance of the scene atleast in part by instantiating ones of the document objects in thecollection.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for instantiating at least one of the documentobjects at least in part by creating, from a document template receivedby the processor, a copy of the at least one of the document objects inthe collection of document objects.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for organizing the collection of document objectsin a hierarchical tree based on document object properties.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for installing one or more components in the one ormore computer memories adapted for supporting the instance of the scene,in response to receiving an instruction from a server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for controlling the collection of document objectsat least in part by detecting, using the one or more componentsexecuting by the processor, ones of the signals signifying eventscorresponding to ones of the document objects.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for generating an information signal in response tothe detecting the ones of the signals signifying events, andtransmitting the information signal to the server.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for communicating with the server using the one ormore components executing by the processor to determine respectiveoutcomes of the events.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for updating states of one or more of the documentobjects in the collection, according to the respective outcomes.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for formatting the data into a format enabling athree-dimensional animated display of the scene for a user interface ofthe one or more clients.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the memory holdsfurther instructions for interpreting the document objects according tothe markup language selected from the group consisting of: a HypertextMarkup Language (HTML) object, an Extensible Hypertext Markup Language(XHTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML).

An embodiment is a system. The system includes one or more objectsdefined according to a protocol for a virtual environment. The systemincludes one or more scenes within the virtual environment. The systemincludes one or more virtual environments, a subset of which are definedas part of at least one of the virtual environments not in the subset.The system includes a database containing information definingpermissions each of the objects, scenes, and virtual environments ispermitted to grant to, or exercise against, one or more of the otherobjects, scenes, or virtual environments.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the system alsoincludes means for realizing the permissions data in an instance of theone or more scenes by limiting the ability of objects, scenes, andvirtual environments to interact to interactions compatible with theextent permissions. Virtual environments are permitted to require,permit, preclude, or a combination thereof, permissions of scenes belowit in a hierarchy, and scenes are permitted to require, permit,preclude, or a combination thereof, permissions of objects below it in ahierarchy.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, database comprisesdata encoded into objects themselves and not centrally stored.

An embodiment is a computer system. The system includes an object orlayer contained within a virtual environment holding templates forgeneration of one or more other objects or layers within a virtualenvironment. The system includes means for generating said one or moreobjects or layers. The system includes means for interacting with saidone or more objects or layers by one or more users resulting in at leastone alteration to the said objects or layers. The system includes meansfor determining, by reference to permissions data, whether one or moresuch alterations should be made persistent with regard to one or moreother objects, other layers, or users.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the system alsoincludes means for recording of the extent state of the objects orlayers.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the system alsoincludes means for determining whether a object, layer or user makingchanges in the recorded state had permission to change the instantiationof such object or layer with regard to a second user, object or layer.The second user, object, or layer attempts to instantiate an instance ofthe object or layer based stored on said template but also stored insaid recorded state.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the system alsoincludes means for instantiating the template version where suchpermissions are insufficient, or the recorded version when suchpermissions are sufficient.

Optionally in any of the aforementioned embodiments, persistence of thealteration may be time-limited or terminated by an event.

An embodiment is a system. The system includes computer-readable storagehaving stored thereon a plurality of modules implemented as executableinstructions. The system includes one or more computer processorsconfigured to execute the plurality of modules. The computer-readablestorage has stored thereon data representing one or more virtualenvironments, configured to enable one of the virtual environments to bepart of another virtual environment. It also has data representing oneor more objects for use within the virtual environments. It also hasdata representing one or more scenes within the virtual environments.The system includes a database, including information indicating a grantof permissions from one of grantor objects, scenes, and virtualenvironments to one or more of actor objects, scenes, or virtualenvironments. The system includes an enforcement module configured toenforce the grant of permissions by limiting interactions performed bythe actor objects, scenes, and virtual environments to interactionscompatible with the granted permissions. The grant of permissions isconfigured to enable virtual environments to require, permit, preclude,or a combination thereof, permissions of scenes below it in a hierarchy.The grant of permissions is further configured to enable scenes torequire, permit, preclude, or a combination thereof, permissions ofobjects below it in a hierarchy.

An embodiment is a system. The system includes computer-readable storagehaving stored thereon a plurality of modules implemented as executableinstructions. The system includes one or more computer processorsconfigured to execute the plurality of modules. The system includes acomputer storage medium having stored thereon data representing anobject or layer within a virtual environment that stores templates forgeneration of one or more other objects or layers within a virtualenvironment. The system includes a generation module configured togenerate the one or more objects or layers. The system includes aninteraction module configured to enable an altering user to interactwith said one or more objects or layers resulting in at least onealteration to the one or more objects or layers. The system includes adetermination module configured to determine, by reference topermissions data, whether one or more such alterations should be madepersistent with regard to one or more other objects, other layers, orusers. The system includes a recordation module configured to record ofa state of such objects or layers. The system includes an instantiationmodule configured to determine, upon a second user, object, or layerattempting to instatiate an instance of an object or layer based on oneof the templates and on recorded state, whether the altering user hadpermissions to act in a manner that changes the instantiation of suchobject or layer with regard to said second user. The instantiationmodule is configured to instantiate the template version where suchpermissions were insufficient, or the recorded version when suchpermissions were sufficient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of network components connected within theVWW, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of network components of a virtual worldssystem, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of enabling an avatar to crossbetween two locations (e.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process of converting items between worlds orother locations, as used in one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process of mapping characteristics fromglobal state to local state, as used in one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of example data structures of global avatarstates and local world data, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of changing an avatar'scharacteristics while the avatar interacts with a virtual world, as usedin an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process of modifying characteristics uponentering a world requiring permanent conversion of characteristics, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a computer network system connectingvirtual world service providers and users, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a hierarchical diagram of an example arrangement of virtualworlds data on a service provider, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a hierarchical diagram of an example arrangement of objectswithin a virtual world, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a data structure representing permissions,as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a process of resolving permission for anentity to take an action, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example gatekeeper having associatedpermissions records, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of an example of permission resolution acrossmultiple gatekeeper objects, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an example of a layout of an instance of a scene in a virtualworld, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a process of executing scripts, as used in anembodiment.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a service provider system and relatedcomputer systems, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a process of serving content based onnamespaces, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a process of cleaning up an instance of ascene.

FIG. 21 is a sample user interface depicting an instance of a scene tobe cleaned up, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a sample user interface displaying a virtual world objectcloud, as used in an embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a process of constructing an object cloud, asused in an embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a computing system as used in anembodiment.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example of a call flow, implementing a multilayercomponent and interface system.

FIGS. 26-28 are flowcharts of various processes performed in anembodiment.

FIG. 29 provides an exemplary apparatus 2900 that may be configured ascomputer server, client device, or combination of client and server, forinstantiating a three-dimensional scene.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

An aspect of the present disclosure concerns improvements andmodifications to client applications and devices for participating in ahosted virtual reality process. The existing World Wide Web (alsoreferred to as “web”, “flat web”, or “www” herein) is designed todisplay information and interact with users in two dimensions. Existingweb clients can display quasi-three dimensional objects (such asgraphics that appear rendered in 3D, or even objects such as images thatactually display in three dimensions when viewed with appropriatehardware, such as red/blue glasses, polarized glasses, LCD shutterglasses or similar technology), but the user cannot navigate through athree dimensional array of data, objects, and other users. Disclosedherein are details regarding a client application that may be anend-user executable (or rendered display delivery mechanism such as adeliverable program), and that may, with regard to a three dimensionalinformation and interaction space, be analogous to web browsers such asInternet Explorer or Google Chrome with regard to two dimensional dataand interaction. It may be implemented as a browser plugin, an extensionto existing software, a standalone application, web application (throughJavascript or Flash, for example), mobile device application, and so on(collectively sometimes referenced herein as “new client”) . . . .

Just as the existing HTTP protocol infrastructure includes the abilityto engage in complex interlinking arrangements, the new client discussedherein enables the user to navigate a complex web of three dimensionalspaces. This interlinked system of three dimensional spaces may bereferred to herein as the “Virtual World Web,” or “VWW.”

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of network components connected within theVWW, as used in an embodiment. In various embodiments, additional blocksmay be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may beconnected or arranged differently from what is shown. The embodiment ofFIG. 1 includes a service provider such as world server 10, a rootserver which may include database server 20, client computer 30, clientphone or other portable device 40, client computer 50, network 60 (suchas the Internet, wide area network, and/or LAN), software server 70,third party service provider such as worlds server 80, and/or thirdparty database server 90. Any of the aforementioned servers may becombined into a single computing device and/or housed on separatecomputing devices, and additional computing devices may similarly beincluded. Similarly, any one or more functions may be performed by avirtual machine, or by use of distributed computing, sharing tasksbetween a plurality of machines. Any of the foregoing may also beimplemented as a peer to peer solution, where certain tasks (forexample, calculations related to rendering of objects) may be performedon other machines (such as by utilizing the new client software runningon one or more machines to perform rendering calculations requested byanother of the machines running the new client software or to distributecopies of the new client software).

The physical layout of the system may include several elements. In anembodiment, end user computer 30 makes a request over a wide areanetwork 60 to a software server 70 to download the client software. Thesoftware server 70 responds to the request by transmitting an executablepackage to the end user computer 30 via a wide area network 60. Theoperator of the end user computer 30 installs the executable client onthe end user computer 30.

The operator of the end user computer 30 then starts the clientsoftware. The client software accesses a worlds server 10 via a widearea network 60 and either authenticates a customer account against adatabase 20 or creates a customer account in a database 20. Worldsservers 10 provide 2-dimensional and/or 3-dimensional virtual worldsservices, such as hosting avatars and maintaining spaces and objectswith which avatars can interact. Worlds servers 10 may perform variousmethods described throughout this specification, and may also bereferred to as service providers or other devices. Worlds servers 10 mayprovide additional services such as transactional services, virtualcurrency services, authentication services, graphic design services, andthe like. As the user computer 30 interacts with the virtual environmentparameters transmitted by the worlds server 10, the worlds server 10accesses the database 20 to obtain information about the user, thevirtual environment, and the virtual objects in the environment.

Avatar Boundary Crossings

The operator of the client computer 30 may encounter an area in thevirtual environment where control over the virtual environment isexercised by an operator other than the operator of the worlds server10. Such a system boundary may be analogous to a hyperlink on a web pagewherein the client web browser is directed to download new content froma third party operator different than the operator of the site thatserved the content containing the hyperlink. Similarly, an avatar couldtraverse a boundary within a virtual worlds server, such as between tworooms or buildings. In such a case, the technology may include severalalternative methods. In one embodiment, the worlds server 10communicates with the third party operator's worlds server 80. Theworlds server 10 gathers any necessary information from database 20,transfers control of the end user avatar and data to the third partyworlds server 80, which in turn records such data to its database server90, and confirms to worlds server 10 that the transfer has beensuccessful. Upon such confirmation, the worlds server 10 makes an entryin the database 20 that the avatar has been “checked out” of thedatabase 20 (or, in another embodiment, actually removes the avatar dataor some portion thereof from database 20). “Checking out” the data maytake the form of a cryptographically secure transfer of control, such asis used for the virtual currency known as a “bitcoin.”

The transfer of control of the avatar from the original worlds server 10to third party worlds server 80 may be termed a “Boundary Event.” Aboundary event need not be across a system, but could be within asystem. For example, within a system operated by a single operator of asingle worlds server 10, a boundary event could occur. Similarly, aboundary event could result from movement within a single area of asingle virtual world. Thus, for example, a user moving from anamphitheater to a coffee shop within a Virtual Vancouver World mightencounter a boundary event. Even within a single location, a user movingfrom one dimension to another might encounter a boundary event. ABoundary Event may also encompass temporal movement, such as when anavatar remains at a location for a period of time or when an avatarengages in a simulation of replay of past events. Thus, a “boundaryevent” may also encompass the movement of an avatar between areas withdifferent rule sets, different attributes, different ownership,different operators, and/or other differences.

In various embodiments discussed in detail below, boundary events arehandled in a manner that results in a positive experience for the enduser, protects the value of end user possessions, protects the integrityof areas operated by the receiving worlds server, and otherwise makepossible the exchange of users, data, objects, and other elementsbetween environments that would otherwise be incompatible or otherwisedifficult to make interoperable.

Boundary Events may be handled analogously to several physical worldconstructs, including international travel “customs” and “immigration,”“life support” elements such as may be necessary in scuba diving or highaltitude climbing, “legal compliance” such as is necessary to avoidarrest in an unfamiliar jurisdiction, and “behavioral compliance” suchas is necessary to comply with the social norms expected of a visitor ina new place. As an avatar seeks to traverse a boundary, the client orserver software may operate to enforce, advise, or facilitate compliancewith any of these requirements. In one aspect, the physical worldcharacteristics of the operator of the avatar, including withoutlimitation age, gender, and geographical location, may be encodedwithin, associated with, and/or imputed to the avatar itself forpurposes of boundary events or otherwise.

Transit within the VWW may be simultaneously accomplished in a varietyof ways. Several different layout examples are provided below, but itshould be understood that contiguous positioning in the layoutrepresents functions that allow movement between contiguous areas, eventhough the areas need not be literally stored or operated on contiguousdevices. Similarly, the layout functionality need not be identical forevery user, so, for example, an adult user may find a gambling worldcontiguous to a car world, while a child may find only an empty lotcontiguous to the car world. The visibility of boundaries, hyperlinks,and other mechanisms of moving between areas may be dependent onattributes of the world and/or avatar. For example, boundaries leadingto adult-themed areas may be invisible to children, and boundaries toareas where an avatar is not permitted to enter may be hidden.

For example, one virtual world system may include a centraltransportation center, or hub, connected to multiple virtual worlds.Illustrative examples of such virtual worlds include a Virtual VancouverWorld, Business District World, Swordfight World, Space War World, Kids'Playground World, Car World, and/or Red Light Center World.

The central transportation hub may serve as a place where all avatarsmay be moved from one virtual area to another. Validation functions maybe performed at the hub, for example, to validate that the user haspermission to enter a certain area. For example, a user may log into theVWW system and appear either at the hub or in any of the other areaswithin the VWW environment, depending on the address provided to thesystem upon log-in. The address may be analogous to a URL for the HTTPprotocol, though it may take on a variety of forms in variousembodiments.

A user who desires to move from the hub to the Virtual Vancouver World,for example, could cause the avatar to walk or run to the border betweenthe hub and the Virtual Vancouver World, or could “warp” to the area byentering an address within the Virtual Vancouver area. From the VirtualVancouver area, the user may be able to walk to adjacent areas withouthaving to transition through the transportation hub. Thus, for example,the Virtual Vancouver area may have direct access to the BusinessDistrict area or the Red Light Center area.

In an embodiment, areas that are compatible are treated as adjacent, sothat, for example, the Kids' Playground would be adjacent to the SpaceWar and Car areas, but not to the Red Light Center (e.g., analogous to ared light district) or Business District areas. The accessibility ofparticular areas with other areas may be based on a physical layout andadjacency between spaces, but this need not be necessarily so. Usersand/or operators may be permitted to create alternative or customizedlayouts, so that, for example, a user who commonly moved betweennormally discontiguous Space War and Patent Law areas might make suchareas contiguous.

One embodiment may include a system whereby users not meeting thecriteria for entry into a world are simply denied access, even if thearea for which access is being sought is presented to the user asadjacent. An area may be adjacent to another based upon various factors,including being depicted as adjacent, being immediately accessible via anon-linear transportation mechanism such as moving between dimensions or“warping,” or bearing other indicia of being adjacent. Areas may beadjacent even where physical topology would ordinarily preventadjacency, so for example five distinct areas could all besimultaneously adjacent to each other. As another example, a side of afirst area might be 10 units in length, but might abut a side of asecond area, third area, and fourth area that are each 8 units inlength.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of network components of a virtual worldssystem, as used in an embodiment. The system may include worlds server10, database server 20, network 60, third party worlds server 80, thirdparty database server 90, transportation center/hub 110, VirtualVancouver World 120, Business District World 130, Swordfight World 140,Space War World 150, Kids' Playground World 160, Car World 170, RedLight Center World 180, Transportation Center/Hub 310, Virtual WorldRegion 320, Virtual World Region 330, and Virtual World Region 340.

The virtual worlds system of FIG. 2 may further include variousassociations (e.g., hyperlinks) between worlds, thereby making worlds“adjacent” or otherwise accessible. For example, the system may includehyperlink 350 between Virtual Vancouver World and Red Light CenterWorld, hyperlink 360 between Space War World and Kids' Playground World,and/or hyperlink 370 between Virtual Vancouver World and SwordfightWorld. A hyperlink in a virtual world may be implemented like ahyperlink on a web page, but given the capabilities of 3-dimensionalvirtual worlds, a hyperlink may be implemented in a variety of otherways, such as a door or wall walked through by an avatar, atransportation vehicle, a warp tunnel or device, a teleportation system,a street, and so on.

Additional connections between worlds may be present in the samplesystem of FIG. 2. The transportation hub 110 associated with worldsserver 10 may be connected to five virtual worlds 120, 130, 180, 320,and 330 in this embodiment. The transportation hub 310 associated with athird party worlds server 80 may be connected to five virtual worlds140, 150, 160, 170, and 340 in this embodiment. The worlds server 10 mayfurther be connected to a database 20 which may be internal or externalto worlds server 10. In this embodiment, the third party worlds server80 is connected to a database 90 which similarly may be internal orexternal to server 80. The two worlds servers 10 and 80 may communicatethrough a network link 60.

In one embodiment, the worlds servers 10 and 80 are not necessary forsome or all connections between worlds. For example, the VirtualVancouver World 120 may include a hyperlink 370 leading to theSwordfight World 140. In such a case, one embodiment employs acryptographically secure decentralized system permitting transfer ofcontrol of an avatar directly from one world to another. A systemsimilar to the system behind the Bitcoin technology is one example of acryptographically secure decentralized system. In such a case, theclient computer 30 may initiate a transaction with the worlds serverresponsible for the destination worlds server 80 and, optionally, theorigination worlds server 10 so that the data associated with the avataris transferred by the client to the destination worlds server 80 withoutrequiring any direct communication between the two worlds servers 10 and80.

In another embodiment, worlds commonly controlled by a single worldsserver 10 may permit the linking and transfer 350 of avatars betweenworlds without a requirement that the avatar appear or transit through acentralized hub 110. Even when a transfer takes place through acentralized hub 110, or even between different worlds servers 10 and 80,the transfer may be made in a manner that does not make the transitmechanism apparent to the end user, so that, for example, the end useris not shown the hub 110 during the transit process. This transferprocess may be used where the user actuates a link or othertransportation mechanism that indicates a desire to directly transportthe avatar to a target area other than the transit hub.

Whether the user is apprised of the transit through a centralized hub110 or 310 or not, the centralized hub 110 or 310 may performvalidation, legality, and/or other tests to determine whether the useris permitted to perform the desired action. Additionally, thecentralized hub 110 or 310 may translate avatar properties between thedeparture world and world of entry, such as is discussed further below.In alternate embodiments, the world of departure and/or world of entrymay perform additional or alternate tests and/or translations of avatarproperties.

In an embodiment, the process of transit between worlds includes atranslation or modification of the user's properties from the propertiesappropriate for the first world (e.g., the world of departure) toproperties appropriate for the second world (e.g., the world of entry).For example, consider an avatar moving from the Space War World 150 tothe Car World 170. If the Car World 170 is configured so that allavatars appear as cars, a human warrior avatar from the Space War World150 would be either out of place in the Car World 170, or may simplyfail to be able to operate or move to the Car World 170. Similarly, anavatar that possesses a laser gun in the Space War World 150 attemptingto move to the Sword Fight World 140 may find itself in possession of anitem that does not function, or is not permitted, within the area. Lossof possessions may result in loss of value, functionality, status,and/or other desirable attributes.

An aspect of the technology involves mapping avatars or objects in oneworld or theme to corresponding avatars or objects in another world ortheme. For example, in a realistic world intended to track real worldproperties, a tall human male avatar might possess a motorcycle and agun. When transiting to the Sword Fight World 140, the possession/avatarmapping system may determine that a tall human male with a motorcycle isequivalent to a tall human knight with a horse (e.g., equivalent to themotorcycle owned in the realistic world) and a sword (equivalent to thegun owned in the realistic world). The mapping may be accomplished via adatabase (such as SQL) or other lookup table or system or by aprogrammatic ruleset.

The mapping may be set according to heuristic or other analysis ofproperties of avatars or objects. It may also be accomplished throughexpress user preferences or preferences or rules set by one or both ofthe worlds involved. In one embodiment, the objects retain theircharacteristics throughout any transitions. Thus, for example, if thetall human male knight's horse is killed while in Sword Fight Area 140,the user would be in possession of a non-functional horse in that area,or in possession of a non-functional motorcycle when moving back intothe realistic avatar world. If the user's sword is sold, it would remainproperty of the purchaser and thus even after moving into another area,the sword (or whatever object it turns into in the new area) wouldremain the property of the purchaser.

In an embodiment, a world, area, or time slice is identified as“unreal,” possibly on a per-object and/or per-avatar basis (e.g., unrealas to objects X and Y and avatar Z only). This could, for example, be ofgreat utility if there was a practice arena in the Sword Fight Area 140.A user might engage in a sword fight, have his sword destroyed, andbecause the sword was marked as unreal, the sword could be recoveredautomatically when the user leaves the area (or when the user takes someaction or with the passage of time). Similar unreal behavior could applyto expenditure of funds (e.g., real money could be used in a casino ortrading floor but none of the actions taken with the real money wouldhave permanence, making the real money effectively cloned into fakemoney). Similar unreal behavior could apply to the health, development,or welfare of an avatar, object or entity. This might be particularlyuseful in modeling disease behavior for example.

Access to an unreal world, area, or time slice may be conditioned on thepayment or virtual currency, real currency, or other virtual or realgoods or things of value. The cost of access may additionally becontingent upon the events within the unreal area. This may have theeffect of making the area partially unreal, such as where a user paysten virtual currency units to access a virtual casino for an hour whereonly ten percent of gains or losses are real. In another embodiment,areas may be partially real in that certain events are persistent (suchas expenditure of virtual currency) while other events are unreal (suchas the death of an avatar or the loss of a sword).

Just as a sword in one world may be a gun in another, without losing itsglobal status as an object of type “weapon-personal-powerful,” forexample, so too may an avatar remain the same avatar type whiledisplaying characteristics appropriate to the world it is theninhabiting. For example, an avatar within Virtual Vancouver World 120may move into Car World 170. If Car World 170 is defined as only havingcars as avatars, the avatar may be automatically changed into a car.Alternatively, the user may be warned that the avatar is about to berendered as a car and asked for permission before continuing thetransition. Items that are inappropriate to the new avatar rendering(for example, the avatar's car from Virtual Vancouver World 120 whichwould make no sense as a possession of a car avatar in Car World 170)may be left on the server or otherwise not displayed in the newenvironment.

Similarly, objects with correspondence to the new avatar may betransformed, possibly automatically, according to rules set by the user,the operator of the system, the operator of the world, and/or operatorsof other worlds. In this example, a human avatar with a fancy watch andfancy shoes may see the watch turn into a fancy car-mounted clock andthe shoes into fancy tires when moving into Car World 170. In someembodiments, clothing and items with aesthetic elements may retain anaesthetic theme, so a human avatar with red clothes, for example, mighttransform into a car avatar with red paint when moving from VirtualVancouver World 120 to Car World 170.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of enabling an avatar to crossbetween two locations (e.g., worlds, scenes, instances, areas, etc.), asused in an embodiment. The locations may be two different serviceproviders operating on different computing hardware, two virtual worldsoperated on a single server, two locations or scenes within a virtualworld, and/or two instances of a scene. (“Scenes” are discussed furtherbelow, and generally refer to a portion of a virtual world, such as abuilding or room.) The process, at each respective location, may beperformed by a computing system, such as the Worlds servers 10 and 80 ofFIG. 2. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, someblocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arrangeddifferently from what is shown.

At block 301, the computing system of location 1 identifies an attemptof an avatar to cross a world boundary. A world boundary may be similarto a link on a web page, insofar as it enables an avatar to access adifferent location. World boundaries may be represented in a virtualworld as a path, door, a window, text on a wall, a touchable object, orthe like. World boundaries may also be made imperceptible to the user,imperceptible to users with permission to cross them, imperceptible tousers who may cross them without material alterations to theirpossessions, or a combination thereof. Similarly, world boundaries maybe made larger, smaller, more perceptible, or less perceptible based onsuch foregoing factors. The system may detect the attempt to access theworld boundary at block 301 based on the avatar moving on or through,touching, pushing, grasping, manipulating, or otherwise interacting withthe world boundary, and/or by a user of the avatar sending anappropriate command to the virtual world indicating a request to crossthe boundary.

At block 302, the system attempts to determine a second locationassociated with the boundary. As a hyperlink on a web page indicates asecond location for a web browser to access, so may a world boundaryindicate a location, denoted in FIG. 3 as location 2, to be accessed bythe avatar. The location may be associated with the world boundary asrepresented within appropriate data structures of location 1 and/or thelocation may be determined by the computer system of location 1accessing an external data source such as a location table or database.

At block 303, the computer system of location 1 communicates with acomputer system of location 2, to initiate a transfer of the avatar. Thetransfer may be made by a proprietary or well-known network protocol,such as HTTP, FTP, SSH, SFTP, SSL, TLS, or the like, or by a combinationthereof. In an embodiment, location 1 initiates transfers of avatar dataat block 303. The avatar data may be represented in various formatssuitable for data interchange, such as HTML, XML, CSV, RPC objects,CORBA objects, YAML data, and so on. Location 2 receives the transferrequest at block 304. The transferred data may include the avatar data,or the avatar data may be transferred at a later point during theprocess (e.g., blocks 306-307).

At block 305, the computer system of location 2 authenticates the avatarfor transfer. Authentication may be used to determine whether the avataris permitted to access the new location. For example, if location 2requires password authentication or other authentication, it may querythe user of the avatar and/or the computer system of location 1, toprovide such authentication credentials. Additionally or alternatively,location 2 may maintain a whitelist or blacklist of avatars and/orassociated users, and/or avatar or user characteristics, for example tokeep track of exiled, banned, or otherwise unwanted entities. Avatarsmay be rejected from a location based on administrator settings for thelocation and/or by automated processes such as behavioral analysis. Forexample, location 2 may not permit an avatar to enter if the locationdetermines that the avatar poses a security risk to others, does notmeet rules of the location, has a history of undesirable behavior, andso on. Authentication may be based on avatar data and/or other datatransferred at blocks 303 and 304, if such data had been transferred, aswell as other data available at location 2.

If the avatar is authenticated for transfer at block 305, then at blocks306 and 307 a transfer protocol is completed between locations 1 and 2.The transfer protocol, in an embodiment, may ensure that the avatar ispresent only at one of the locations, thus preventing the avatar fromsimultaneously acting in two locations at once, if this is desirable tothe systems. In alternate embodiments, avatars may be permitted to be intwo places at once, in which case the transfer protocol need not ensurethat the avatar is only in one location. In an embodiment, acryptographic protocol such as the Bitcoin protocol is employed, toensure that the avatar is only at one location. Alternately, acentralized database or record of avatar locations may be used to ensureavatar uniqueness.

The transfer protocol may also involve transfer and/or conversion ofitems and/or characteristics of the avatar, as shown at block 308. Asexplained in detail below, an avatar may be associated withcharacteristics, such as possessed items, appearance features,personality features, social relations, and so on. In moving betweenworlds or other locations, the avatar may have those characteristicsautomatically transferred. In some embodiments, those characteristicsmay furthermore be translated or converted to be appropriate to thedestination location. For example, if the destination location hascertain rules about required and/or permitted possessions, and theavatar has a possession that is not allowed in the new world, then theavatar's possession may be exchanged, converted, altered, replaced,removed, or otherwise affected. In various embodiments, the transferprocess may be performed by a computer system at location 1, a computersystem at location 2, a client computing device, a centralized server,and so on, as well as any combination of these.

In one embodiment, the transfer of an avatar may be made in a partialmanner, separating the avatar from one or more elements associated withthe avatar, such as possessions. In such a manner, possessions notpermitted to cross a boundary may be retained on the originating systemand reclaimed by the avatar upon return. In another embodiment, aduplicate or clone of the avatar may be permitted to cross the boundary,and such duplicate may optionally be prohibited from returning acrossthe boundary. The duplicate and the original avatar may remain linked,such that they share virtual currency or items, damage to one avataraccrues to the other, etc. In one embodiment, upon return of a duplicateavatar across a boundary, the avatars are merged, with some or allchanges taking place to one or both avatars in the time since theduplication took place being reflected in the merged avatar.

At block 309, the computer system of location 1 disengages the avatar.In parallel or serial, at block 310 the computer system of location 2engages the avatar for interaction. This may be reflected by thecomputer system of locations 1 and/or 2 sending appropriate data to thecomputing device of the user of the avatar, to update the graphicaldisplay for the avatar reflecting the new location. In an embodiment,various transitions may be used during this transfer, to indicate thechange in location for the avatar. In an embodiment, user interfaces maybe presented during the process of blocks 301 through 310 to inform theuser of the avatar of the process and/or to allow the user to affect theprocess. For example, user interfaces may be presented at block 308 toenable the user to control or otherwise affect the conversion of itemsor other characteristics. For example, in some cases the user may havemore than one option for a characteristic or item that a currently helditem or characteristic may be translated into in location 2. The usermay further be given options to cancel the world boundary crossing,should the ramifications of transfer appear to be undesirable or forother reasons. In one implementation, for the purpose of making the userexperience more seamless or other reasons, the computer system oflocation 2 may provisionally engage the avatar before the computersystem of location 1 disengages the avatar. This may be conditioned onthe reputation of each of the locations, contractual or otherrelationships between the locations, latency between the locations,historical data about success of movement of avatars between locations,or other factors.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process of converting items between worlds orother locations, as used in one embodiment. The process may beperformed, for example, by a computer system as described with respectto FIG. 3. The process may be performed at block 308 of FIG. 3. Invarious embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks maybe removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

As explained previously, avatars may be associated with characteristics,such as possessions, appearance features, personality features, and soon. Some or all of those characteristics may be appropriate in one worldbut not another. For example, an avatar may operate in a space-themedworld, in which avatars wear space suits, fly spaceships, and fight withlaser guns. A second world may be a medieval world, in which avatarswear armor, ride horses, and fight with broadswords. It can readily beseen that the items appropriate for the space-themed world would be outof place—and even inoperable—in the medieval world, and vice versa.Requiring the user of the avatar to dispose of items for one world andacquire items for another world every time the avatar crosses boundariesmay be time-consuming, inefficient, and undesirable to the user. Thus,the system may enable an automated conversion process, such as thatshown in FIG. 4.

At block 401, the system determines the characteristics of the avatar.The characteristics may be represented in a data file such as thatdescribed with respect to blocks 303 and 304 of FIG. 3. Alternately, thecharacteristics may be acquired from an external and/or internalrepository of characteristics.

The system then proceeds to review the characteristics and determineappropriate conversions. At block 402, the system identifies one of theavatar's characteristics, and attributes of the characteristic aredetermined at block 403. Attributes of a characteristic may includetags, features, descriptions, metadata, or other information associatedwith the characteristic. For example, a spaceship in the space-themedworld may have attributes such as size, speed, power, age, and so on.Similarly, a horse in the medieval world may have attributes such asbreed, stamina, age, pedigree, and so on. In an embodiment, theattributes are based on a common object attribute model, so thatattributes between different objects may be readily compared.Characteristics not relevant to the new region need not be reviewed, andthe characteristics to be reviewed may be identified using a whitelistor blacklist.

In an embodiment, one of the attributes is a class attribute indicatinga type of object, such that objects of the same and/or similar class maybe exchanged. For example, the spaceship of space-world and the horse ofmedieval world may be both of the class “transportation,” to indicatethat both items are modes of transport in the respective worlds. Theclass attribute need not be consistent across multiple worlds. Forexample, a broadsword may be classified as a “weapon” in a medievalworld, but classified as a “relic” in an archaeology or explorationworld. In one embodiment, a classification translation table may bemaintained to track correlations between different class names used indifferent worlds.

In one implementation, the class system may utilize a nomenclatureand/or a hierarchy system that functions to better facilitateconversions and user understanding of conversions. In one suchimplementation, the nomenclature may be similar to that used by the DNSsystem, and may optionally function as a pointer to data about theultimate object.

As one example, consider a spaceship object, which may have attributessuch as those shown in the table below.

TABLE 1 Condition RightThrusterBroken Implementation Rocketship ClassCapableOfEightRiders Type Transportation Location within regionQuadrant3.2.1 Region SpaceDock7 World SpaceWorld Owner BuckRogers

The elements of the classification of the above spaceship may behierarchical (in the table above, the elements generally are arrangedfrom more specific to more general), and they may be represented in ahierarchical fashion, analogous to the arrangement of subdomainsseparated by periods in the DNS system, or folders separated by slashesin filesystems.

At block 404, the computer system determines whether the characteristicof block 402 can be mapped to the world being entered. The determinationmay be made based on the attributes assessed at block 403. In somecases, the characteristic may not be mappable. For example, a weaponsuch as a broadsword or laser gun may have no equivalent in a peacefulworld. In this example, the determination may be based on the class ofobject; that is, the peaceful world may include a rule that nocharacteristics of class “weapon” (and/or other similar classes) areallowed. If the computer system determines that no mapping is possibleat block 404, then at block 405 the computer system proceeds to reviewthe next characteristic.

Where there is a determination that an object is not mappable, theobject may optionally be checked into a storage server, allowed to staywith the avatar but in unusable form (such as in the form of a virtualphotograph of the object) at least until the object enters an area whereit is usable or mappable, and/or virtual or real currency, goods, orservices may be offered in exchange for the object. Such an offer may beparticularly suited to instances where an avatar is intended to remainin a region where the object is not mappable for more than a shortperiod of time. Alternatively, the object may be mapped to one of aplurality of user or operator selected like or unlike objects (such as aconversion of a sword into a plowshare), or certain objects may beautomatically converted into a like or unlike object. The global and/orlocal state may be used to maintain this storage of unusable ormultiply-mapped objects.

If the characteristic is mappable to the world, then at block 406 theappropriate characteristic for mapping is determined, and the avatar isassociated with the new characteristic. The determination of the newcharacteristic may be made based on the attributes determined at block403, and further based on attribute data of characteristics known oravailable to the world. In an embodiment, the world chooses acharacteristic with sufficiently similar attributes, based on aheuristic, maximization, optimization, matching, regression, and/orother algorithm for comparing characteristics. In an embodiment, theuser may have input into the selection of the mapped characteristic.

In an embodiment, characteristics are associated with real money,virtual money, and/or other exchangeable currency or items of value. Insome cases, the avatar's original characteristic may be worth more orless than the mapped characteristic provided. As appropriate, then, thesystem may charge or refund an account associated with the avatar, asshown at block 407. In an embodiment, the charge or refund is made onlyif the conversion of the characteristic is permanent. Thus, in somecases, an avatar's characteristics may only temporarily be convertedwhile the avatar is present in the world, and the originalcharacteristics may be restored when the avatar leaves the world. Insuch a case, accounting for value changes may be unnecessary.

Alternatively, surplus value may be held in an account on behalf of theuser, and a deficit in value may be charged to the user or an amountequal to the deficit frozen in the user's account, all of which may beheld for a period of time, until the object is converted back, or theearlier of the two events. In another embodiment, conversion of theobject may be charged to the user (in the event of a value deficit) orcredited to the user (in the event of a value surplus) together with anagreement that the object may be converted back at a fixed exchange rateduring a certain period of time. Interest may accrue or be charged inany of these scenarios.

In various embodiments, the conversion of characteristics is permanentrather than temporary. In such cases, at block 408 the global state forthe avatar is updated as appropriate to reflect the avatar's change ofcharacteristics. Specifically, at this block, the avatar's oldcharacteristics may be revoked in the global state, and the avatar's newcharacteristics may be added to the global state. The global state, inan embodiment, reflects the avatar's characteristics across all worlds.Thus, when the global state is updated for the avatar's characteristics,the avatar may not receive previous characteristics when departing fromthe world. In an embodiment, the original characteristics of the avatarmay become associated with the world after the global state update. Forexample, if an avatar exchanges a spacesuit for a coat of armor uponentering the medieval world, the spacesuit may become the possession ofthe medieval world, thus enabling the medieval world to sell orotherwise extract value from it. Alternately, the characteristic may bereturned to a common pool for the world or service provider. Optionally,such a conversion and change of ownership may be in exchange forsomething of value (virtual or real), such as entry to the world.Optionally, such a conversion may occur over time, so that the user'sinterest in the item declines as time passes while the user is in theworld.

In an embodiment, some characteristics may be permanently converted,while other characteristics may be temporarily converted. Suchprocedures for conversion may be defined by the world being entered bythe avatar and/or accessed from rules of the world being entered and/orthe world being left. For example, a world may specify thatappearance-related characteristics are temporarily converted, whilepossession-related characteristics are permanently converted. In oneembodiment, the user is presented with a visual representation of whichcharacteristics may be permanently converted and/or whichcharacteristics may be temporarily converted and/or whichcharacteristics will be unaffected. Such presentation may be made priorto the conversion, and the conversion may be conditioned on userapproved of such conversion. In a simple example of an avatar with ahat, a shirt, and a sword where the hat is unaffected, the shirt may betemporarily affected, and the sword may be permanently affected, the hatmay appear (or be highlighted) white, the shirt yellow, and the swordred.

When all of the attributes have been processed through block 405, thenat block 406 the computer system adds other default characteristics tothe avatar, as necessary. A world may define certain characteristics asbeing required or otherwise default for avatars. For example, the spaceworld may require avatars to possess an oxygen tank for breathing. If anavatar enters the space world, then the system may provide an oxygentank to the avatar upon entry. In various embodiments, the avatarreceives default items upon all entries to the world, upon the avatar'sfirst entry to the world, and/or based on whether the avatar already hasthe item or another item mappable to the default item. In an embodiment,the avatar may be charged for the default item. In another embodiment,the item may be provided on a “rental” or “loaner” basis.

At block 410, the avatar's characteristics are further updated based onlocal state stored by the world. The local state may be used by a worldto maintain information pertinent to the particular world but not to theglobal avatar state. For example, the local state may maintaininformation about characteristics specific to the world. Characteristicsmay be updated at block 410 by being added, removed, or modified.

Local state updates may be used to prevent undesirable refreshing ofitems through strategic entry into and departure from the world. In theexample above with regard to space world, oxygen tanks may deplete overtime, and avatars may be required to periodically refill their oxygentanks (perhaps for a fee). However, if an avatar is automaticallygranted an oxygen tank upon entry into the space world, then the avatarcould avoid purchasing a refill by leaving space world, disposing of theoxygen tank, and returning to space world to receive a new tank. Spaceworld may use local state to avoid this, by recording the avatar'soxygen tank level, so that when the avatar returns, the oxygen tank isset to the previous level. In another example, an avatar may lose anitem in a world, but the world may not make the loss of the itempermanent so that the item is restored when the avatar leaves the world.Local state may be then used to ensure that, when the avatar returns tothe world, the “lost” item is not accessible to the avatar. Thus, localstate may be used to ensure persistence of characteristics of an avataras necessary through entry into and exit from a world.

In addition to, separate from, or in conjunction with local state, thesystem may prevent a user from causing one or more items, or any itemsto be mapped between areas for a period of time after the last mapping,and may optionally slowly return the ability to do a mapping using aformula, such as M=N/T where M is the percentage of items that may bemapped, N is the number of seconds that have passed since the lastmapping, and T is the amount of time the system requires between fullmappings. Such a formulaic approach may alternatively or additionally beused to determine the cost of mapping prior to the expiration of the setamount of time (i.e. cost would be the full cost of an early mapping orother mapping multiplied by 1 minus M).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process of mapping characteristics fromglobal state to local state, as used in one embodiment. The process maybe performed by a computer system, at block 406 of FIG. 4, for example.In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocksmay be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differentlyfrom what is shown.

At block 501, the computer system identifies one characteristic of anavatar being processed during a conversion procedure such as thatdescribed with respect to FIG. 4. The characteristic may be drawn fromthe global state identifying the avatar's characteristics. At block 502,the computer system determines whether there is a local modification tothat characteristic. A local modification may be a modificationapplicable to the specific world and stored with that world's localstate, such as with the oxygen tank and lost item examples describedpreviously. If there is such a local state modification, then that localstate modification is applied at block 503.

If there is no local state modification, then at block 504 the systemdetermines whether there is an agreement for conversion of the item withanother world or location. Two worlds may have an agreement that certainitems or characteristics are convertible, so that those characteristicsmay be exchanged. For example, the space world and the medieval worldmay have an agreement that laser guns of a particular type may beexchanged with broadswords of a particular type. The agreement may bestored in scripts, code, or other local state of the agreeing worlds. Ifsuch an agreement is found, then the agreed conversion is used at block505. Invoking the conversion may involve contacting the world inagreement, by network connection or other communication.

If no agreement is found, then at block 506 the world's defaultconversion procedure is followed. This conversion procedure may accountfor the attributes of the characteristics being converted, theattributes of various permitted characteristics, virtual currency valuesof the characteristics, supply and/or demand for the characteristics,and so on. Furthermore, the conversion may be made temporary orpermanent, as specified by the world.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of example data structures of global avatarstates and local world data, as used in an embodiment. The datastructure may be stored on computer-readable media such as a hard drive,SSD, tape backup, distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and maybe structured as relational database tables, flat files, C structures,programming language objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

Global avatar state 601 may be stored by a service provider or otherdata repository, and maintain records relating to one or more avatars.Global avatar state may maintain information such as characteristics ofavatars, including attributes 602 (such as appearance, personality,social relations, etc.) and possessions 603. Additionally, global avatarstate may maintain authentication data 604, which may be used, forexample, at block 305 of FIG. 3.

As described previously, characteristics may be associated withattributes defining aspects of each characteristic. The attributes maybe used, for example, in the mapping process of block 406 of FIG. 4. Thecharacteristics may be stored as part of global avatar state 601.Alternately, attributes may be stored in a separate data repository ofattributes of avatar characteristics. In an embodiment, each worldmaintains attributes for characteristics, thus enabling worlds tointerpret characteristics differently (as explained with respect to thebroadsword “weapon”/“relic” example).

Virtual world data 605 may include information for operating a virtualworld. Rules relating to the conversion processes, such as thatdescribed with respect to FIG. 4, may be included in virtual world data605. For example, required characteristics 606 may be used at block 409of FIG. 4 to determine required or default characteristics and/orattributes of characteristics. Conversions rules 607 may define theprocesses of converting characteristics and/or attributes ofcharacteristics.

Virtual worlds may maintain characteristics, such as those acquiredduring a conversion processes. These characteristics may be stored aspossessions 608 in the virtual world. Virtual worlds may also maintainauthentication data 609 for determining authentication and permissionsof avatars upon entry, as described with respect to block 305 of FIG. 5.

As described previously, each virtual world may maintain a local avatarstate, used for modifying an avatar's global state upon entry to reflectworld-specific changes to characteristics. These modifications may bemaintained in data structure 610, which includes information onattribute modifications 611 and possession and other characteristicmodifications 612. The stored modifications may include additionalcharacteristics to be added to avatars, characteristics to be removedfrom avatars, and/or modifications to attributes of characteristics ofavatars. Additionally, as described with respect to block 504 of FIG. 5,a virtual world may maintain one or more world-to-world local agreementson characteristic exchanges.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of changing an avatar'scharacteristics while the avatar interacts with a virtual world, as usedin an embodiment. The process may be performed by a computer systemoperating a virtual world, as described previously. In variousembodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may beremoved, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

The disclosure heretofore has considered the handling of avatarcharacteristics upon entry into a virtual world or transit within avirtual environment. As the avatar interacts with the virtual world, theavatar's characteristics may change: the avatar may acquire new items,sell or dispose of items, change appearances naturally or upon userdirection, and so on. An avatar might gain or lose characteristics(e.g., the avatar acquires or loses items), or attributes ofcharacteristics might change (e.g., the avatar's sword is damaged).Similarly, the avatar itself may change, such as by aging, by acquiringnew skills, etc. These changes may or may not be reflected in theavatar's global state, depending on the configuration of the particularworld. For example, a “testing” world may provide that an avatar'scharacteristics are restored upon departure, whereas a “realistic” worldmay effect permanent changes to an avatar. Furthermore, virtual worldsmay be concerned with undesirable gaming of the conversion system, wherefor example, an avatar may repeatedly enter and leave a world, to try togain illicit or undesired advantages by invoking the conversionprocesses.

Additionally, there may be instances where the user desires to revertback to a prior state upon occurrence of an event. For example, uponleaving space world, an avatar may wish to revert to the state theavatar was in upon entering space world. Past state information may bemaintained by the system (or locally, on the client side) and utilizedto determine the cost of such a reversion (or, in the case of a mix ofelements that can be purchased, such as new weapons, and elements thatcannot, such as an arm). In one embodiment, the user may select or beprovided with multiple reversion points, similar to save states in agame. In one embodiment, the cost of reverting to a particular state maybe continuously or intermittently presented to the user, and/or the usermay choose one or more trigger costs at which the user will be warnedand/or automatically transported back to a place where the reversion cantake place and/or automatically reverted, all optionally with theautomatic deduction of the cost of purchasing the items from the user'saccount. In one embodiment, the cost (and/or time required forreversion) is continually or periodically adjusted for fluctuations inmarket price and availability of items.

At block 701, an avatar interacts with a virtual world. The interactionmay result in a change in the avatar's characteristics, at block 702.The change may occur in response to an action taken by the avatar and/oran automatic process such as aging.

At block 703, the local state of the avatar may be updated. The localstate may be configured to affect the avatar's characteristics withinthe world. This may provide immediate feedback to the avatar regardingthe change in characteristic.

At block 704, the system determines whether a corresponding change canbe made to a global state. The determination may involve complexprocesses in some embodiments, depending on the configuration of thesystem and the virtual world. For example, the system may determine thatthe changed characteristic is not itself present in the global state,but the changed characteristic was exchanged with another characteristicthat is present in the global state. In such a case, the change to theworld-based characteristic may be correspondingly made to the globalcharacteristic.

For example, if an avatar, originally from space world, has a laser gunand enters medieval world, then the avatar's laser gun may be convertedto a broadsword. If, in medieval world, the avatar sells the broadswordto another avatar, then the system may detect that the broadswordcorresponded to the laser gun, and so it may update the avatar's globalstate to remove possession of the laser gun.

In the case that characteristics are permanently converted, as describedpreviously, then the aforementioned reverse-mapping procedure may not berequired. Where the reverse-mapping procedure is performed, it will beunderstood that the virtual world may maintain appropriate datastructures, such as records of conversions, to facilitate the procedure.In one implementation, including where characteristics are notpermanently converted, the transfer of an item, such as a laser gun, mayrequire (or the system may make) disclosure of the state of the item,such as “laser gun temporarily converted to broad sword.”

The mapping of changes to characteristics to global state may involvesimilar complexity. For example, if the avatar's broadsword from abovewas bent or chipped during a fight, a corresponding change to theavatar's laser gun in global state may be made. An identical change maynot be appropriate: in this example, a chip in a laser gun will likelynot render the laser gun less functional, whereas a chip in a broadswordmay decrease functionality. Accordingly, changes to global state may bemade through a mapping process as well, as defined by the virtual worldand/or the service provider. The changes may be based on attributes ofcharacteristics as described previously. For example, a chip in abroadsword may be interpreted as a decrease in an “power” attribute of a“weapon”-class item, so a corresponding decrease in the “power”attribute of the laser gun may be made to global state (for example,making the laser gun fire shorter blasts).

Where a change to global state can be made at block 704, the change ismade at block 706 and stored at block 707. If the system determines atblock 704 that the change cannot be made, then at block 705 the systemmay store an appropriate local state modification. The local statemodification may be used to ensure that changed characteristics are notrevertible by the avatar leaving and reentering the world. For example,with respect to the broadsword example from above, the chip to thebroadsword may be stored in the medieval world's local state. When theavatar with the chipped broadsword leaves medieval world, the avatar'soriginal laser gun may be restored. The avatar may then return to themedieval world and have the laser gun converted again to a broadsword,and the local state may automatically cause that broadsword to have achip in it.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process of modifying characteristics uponentering a world requiring permanent conversion of characteristics, asused in an embodiment. The process may be performed by a computer systemoperating a virtual world. In various embodiments, additional blocks maybe included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connectedor arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 801, the system determines the characteristics of the avatar.At block 802, the system identifies corresponding characteristicsappropriate to the world. The corresponding characteristics may bedetermined by a mapping process such as that described with respect toFIG. 5.

At block 803, the system proposes an exchange of characteristics to theuser of the avatar. The proposal may be displayed as a user interfaceshowing the characteristics to be received, the value required, thecharacteristics to be forfeited, and so on. In an embodiment, multipleoptions for exchange may be presented to the avatar. In an embodiment,the avatar may be presented with a selection of items for exchanging, sothat formation of a complete proposal package may not be required. Theuser may then be prompted to accept the exchange, at block 804. If theuser rejects the exchange, then at block 805 the world may denypermission to the avatar to enter the world.

If the user accepts the exchange at block 804, then at block 806 theavatar's characteristics are revoked as appropriate. The revocation maybe written to the avatar's global state to ensure permanence. At block807, the avatar is given the new characteristics as proposed at block803. There may be differences in the value of characteristics revokedand characteristics granted, so at block 808 the avatar's account may becharged or credited as appropriate.

Securable Objects and Permissions Resolution

It may be desired for avatars to be limited in their abilities to takecertain actions within a world, scene, or instance. For example, it maybe desired to prevent graffiti from being applied to walls. The owner orproprietor of a space may wish to mark objects with various permissions,allowing certain people, classes of avatars and objects, or other actorsas able or unable to perform certain actions. The permissions may alsoinclude persistence rules. For example, there may be objects that can bealtered or moved, but those actions expire after a period of time orcertain event (such as a person leaving a room, all avatars leaving anarea, all avatars other than certain staff users leaving an area, and soon). In one embodiment, history information for avatars may be utilizedto rate risk and desirability of having an avatar enter an area, forexample by forbidding entrance to a room to any avatar that previouslyapplied graffiti to a wall.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a computer network system connectingvirtual world service providers and users, as used in an embodiment. Invarious embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks maybe removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

Service providers 901 include computing devices and systems offeringvirtual worlds services. Service providers 901 may include computinghardware and/or software configured to perform one or more of theprocesses described throughout this specification. In an embodiment,multiple service providers 901 may be housed on a single computingdevice. Service providers 901 may also be distributed across multipledevices, as in cloud computing or distributed systems.

Service providers 901 communicate via one or more networks 902 withusers 903. The networks may include, for example, Internet networks,cellular networks, local area networks, wide area networks, wirelessnetworks, Ethernet networks, and so on, as well as combinations thereof.Users 903 may include user computing devices, such as desktop computers,laptop computers, mobile computing devices, mobile phones, tablets, andthe like. The term “user” throughout this specification may be used torefer to a user device such as the aforementioned and/or an entity, suchas an individual, operating such a device, as appropriate to the contextof the term.

Additional devices and systems may be included in the system of FIG. 9.For example, service providers 901 may communicate with common datastores, such as account databases, registration servers, managementservers, and so on. Such use of centralized systems may allow serviceproviders 901 to easily synchronize and coordinate among each other (forexample, to coordinate avatar location transitions, to synchronize useraccounts, and so on).

FIG. 10 is a hierarchical diagram of an example arrangement of virtualworlds data on a service provider, as used in an embodiment. The blocksrepresent types of data objects, and interconnections may representrelationships among the data elements, such as pointers, references,subclass relationships, or the like. The data structures may be storedon computer-readable media such as a hard drive, SSD, tape backup,distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and may be structured asrelational database tables, flat files, C structures, programminglanguage objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

Service provider 1001 may be represented as a data object with generaldata relating to the service provider. A service provider may maintainaccounts 1002 for users of the service provider. The account objects mayinclude relevant data relating to users, such as usernames,authentication information, attribute information, personal information,and so on. Each account may further be associated with one or moreavatars 1004, which the user may select for appearing in a virtualworld. The service provider may allow users to maintain multiple avatarsor may restrict users to a single avatar, in various embodiments. Byallowing users to maintain multiple avatars, a service provider mayallow users to take on different appearances and personas in differentsituations, as selected by the users and/or the service provider.

Service provider 1001 may further maintain worlds 1003. Each world mayrepresent a virtual space in which avatars may interact. Serviceprovider may maintain multiple virtual worlds 1003, and each virtualworld may be operated by different users or administrators of serviceprovider 1001. Thus, a service provider may be analogously likened to acountry, and each world may be likened to a city within that world. Inone embodiment, virtual worlds may have distinctive rules, features,communities, and the like, all the while being subject to the generalpolicies of the service provider.

Virtual worlds 1003 may in turn include scenes 1005. Following theanalogy from above, each scene may be likened to a building or roomwithin a city. Scenes represent virtual locations where avatars mayvisit and enter. A scene may be defined by various attributes such asappearance, size, furniture, included items, architecture, and so on.

In some situations, it may be desirable to have a single scene 1005available but have avatars enter different copies of that scene. Forexample, one may create a scene arranged to appear like a virtual tenniscourt, and it may be desirable for pairs of tennis players to beprovided distinct copies of the scene rather than making all players usethe same virtual space. Such copies are implemented by instances 1006.An instance represents a running version of a scene, and avatarsinteract within instances of scenes.

When an avatar locates a scene and attempts to enter that scene, theservice provider may determine whether to create a new instance for thatavatar or to place that avatar into an existing instance. Thedetermination may be based on rules specified for the scene. Forexample, some scenes may be configured to allow a maximum number ofavatars per instance (for example, a tennis scene may allow up to twoplayers per instance). New instances may also be created based on timeintervals, avatar user requests, availability of objects within eachinstance, and so on. In one embodiment, an environment may automaticallychange, or the avatars may be automatically transported, when athreshold event takes place. For example, avatars waiting to play pokermay be automatically transported to the poker room when eight avatarshave signed up for the table. In another example, a prospective tennisplayer may wait in a waiting room until another tennis player arrivesand the waiting room is transformed into a tennis court.

Instances may originally be configured based on the specification of theunderlying scene. For example, a newly created instance may be arrangedto have the same contained items, the same appearance, the same size,and so on, with respect to the scene. In alternate embodiments, thescene may include instructions that randomize or otherwise alter thenature of each new instance. As avatars interact with an instance of ascene, those avatars may cause changes to the contained items,appearance, and so on. Such changes may or may not be reflected back tothe original scene, possibly depending on the configuration of thescene. Additionally, in an embodiment, new instances may be based onexisting instances, rather than being based on the original scenes.

Within a service provider, worlds 1003, scenes 1005, and instances 1006may be represented as data structure objects, such as XML documents,relational database records, programming language objects, or the like.Service providers may include software modules to convert these objectsto graphical or other representations. The software may be operated onthe service provider to generate those representations. Additionally oralternately, client software operating on user devices may perform thetranslation of data structure objects to graphical representations.

FIG. 11 is a hierarchical diagram of an example arrangement of objectswithin a virtual world, as used in an embodiment. The blocks representtypes of data objects, and interconnections may represent relationshipsamong the data elements, such as pointers, references, subclassrelationships, or the like. The data structures may be stored oncomputer-readable media such as a hard drive, SSD, tape backup,distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and may be structured asrelational database tables, flat files, C structures, programminglanguage objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

A securable object 1101, as used in an embodiment, is a general class ortype of object used by a service provider. Securable objects may includeservice provider data object 1102, virtual world data object 1103, scenedata object 1104, and item 1105. The service provider, virtual world,and scene data objects may correspond to the objects described withrespect to FIG. 10, and instances may also be represented as securableobjects. Items 1105 may represent items within a virtual world,including items possessed by avatars, items within scenes, buildings,structures, plants, animals, and other components of a virtual world.

Securable objects may generally be considered as objects that can beacted upon within a virtual world. Various actions may be performed onsecurable objects, as defined by the service provider, virtual world,scene, instance, or other appropriate body. The types of actionsunderstood within a virtual world may differ across different types ofsecurable objects. For example, the action “take” may be available forsmall objects such as pencils, but not available for large objects suchas trees. Similarly, the permitted actions may be relative to one ormore avatars or objects or avatar or object types. For example, theaction “take” may be available for a tree when an avatar driving atractor attempts the action, but unavailable for an avatar without ahelper object of some kind.

In an embodiment, one particular type of securable object is entity1106. An entity may represent a user or other individual capable oftaking actions within the virtual world. Examples of entities mayinclude user account 1107, persona object 1108, and avatar object 1109.Because entities are types of securable objects, they may be acted uponjust like any other securable object. In an alternate embodiment,entities may not be a type of securable object.

When an avatar (or other entity) interacts within a virtual world, theavatar may take actions within that world. For example, an avatar mayacquire a pencil lying on the ground in a virtual world, by executing a“take” action on the pencil. Such an action may be represented as a datarequest presented to a service provider via a network protocol or othercommunication system, and the action may be translated to a graphicalrepresentation by the service provider and/or client software executingon the user's computer.

In some cases, it may be desirable to restrict the types of actions thatmay be taken within a virtual world. Thus, in an embodiment, the serviceprovider implements a process of “permissions resolution” to determinewhich actions may be taken, by which entities, and on which securableobjects. In another embodiment, certain objects may be generated andutilized entirely locally on the client and either not transmitted toother clients, or transmitted in summary form to other clients. Forexample, if a user has a grass lawn, other clients may simply be told togenerate a “grass lawn” without regard to replicating specific conditionaspects of the lawn, such as footprints or imperfections. In someinstances, such “summary form” transmission may be used to permit usersto specify what kinds of generic objects they prefer (e.g. what type ofgrass), and/or to localize such common objects, as for example by havingthe summary form item “night sky” reflect the appearance of the nightsky as seen from each user's geographic location.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a data structure representing permissions,as used in an embodiment. The data structure may be stored by a serviceprovider and used in the process of permissions resolution. The datastructure may be stored on computer-readable media such as a hard drive,SSD, tape backup, distributed storage, cloud storage, and so on, and maybe structured as relational database tables, flat files, C structures,programming language objects, database objects, and the like. In variousembodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may beremoved, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown.

Permission record 1201 may be associated with one or more “gatekeeper”objects 1202. A gatekeeper is an object that has authority orjurisdiction to determine whether an action will be permitted. In anembodiment, gatekeepers may include the service provider, virtual world,scene, and/or instance in which an avatar takes an action. Thus, eachgatekeeper may have an influence on whether the avatar is permitted totake the desired action, as described below.

Permission record 1201 may further include entity pattern 1203, actionpattern 1204, and/or securable pattern 1205. These patterns may be usedto determine whether a particular permission record relates to an actionbeing taken. In an embodiment, a permission record is applicable to anaction when the entity attempting the action matches entity pattern1203, the action being attempted matches action pattern 1204, and thesecurable object to be acted upon matches securable pattern 1205. Thepatterns may identify particular objects or rules used to match objects.The patterns may include, for example, regular expressions, categories,executable code, and the like.

Permission record 1201 may further include permission indicator 1206.The permission indicator may identify whether an action matching thepatterns is to be allowed or disallowed. In an embodiment, permissionindicator 1206 may have a value of “yes,” “no,” and “inherit.” The lastof these options may be used to indicate that the permissibility of theaction is to be derived from another gatekeeper, as described below.

Permission record 1201 may also include an “overridable” flag 1207. Thisflag may be used to determine whether further gatekeepers are to beconsulted in determining whether the action is to be permitted. Forexample, a service provider may include a permission record that permitsa certain action. If the permission record is overridable, then thepermission resolution process may further consult the virtual worldwithin that service provider to determine whether the action ispermitted, but if the permission record is not overridable, then thepermission resolution process may conclude the resolution process.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a process of resolving permission for anentity to take an action, as used in an embodiment. The process may beperformed, for example, on a service provider system. In variousembodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may beremoved, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

At block 1301, the service provider identifies an entity attempting totake an action on a securable object. The attempt may be identified inresponse to a request submitted by a user to have that user's avatar orother entity take the desired action.

At block 1302, a hierarchy of gatekeepers is identified. In anembodiment, the hierarchy of gatekeepers includes the service provideron which the entity is acting, the virtual world in which the entity isacting, the scene in which the entity is acting, the instance in whichthe entity is acting, and the securable object on which the entity isacting. In alternate embodiments, other gatekeepers may be included, asubset of the gatekeepers may be used, and/or the gatekeepers may bedifferently ordered.

The system then proceeds to resolve permissions for the gatekeepers. Atblock 1303, the highest gatekeeper in the hierarchy is selected. Thepermissions records associated with the gatekeeper may then be matchedagainst the entity, action, and securable object of block 1301. If nomatching permission record is found, then the system proceeds toconsider further objects in the hierarchy at block 1305.

If a matching permission record is found, then the permission identifierof the matching permission record may be applied and recorded to aninternal buffer, at block 1306. If the permission identifier is“inherit,” then the existing value of the internal buffer may beretained, so that the previous permission setting is inherited. If thepermission record is overridable at block 1307, then the system proceedsto consider the next gatekeeper in the hierarchy, at block 1305.

When no gatekeepers remain for consideration at block 1305, or when anon-overridable permission record is applied at block 1307, permissionresolution may proceed to block 1308, at which the last recordedpermission from block 1306 may be applied.

In some cases, no permission may have been recorded at block 1306. Forexample, it is possible that none of the gatekeepers had matchingpermissions records, or all of the matching permissions records hadpermissions identifiers of “inherit.” In such cases, a defaultpermission may be applied. Alternately, certain gatekeepers may include“catch-all” permissions records to ensure that at least one permissionsrecord always matches, or a “catch-all” gatekeeper may be included atthe end of the hierarchy.

Variations of the above algorithm may be applied in some embodiments.For example, a gatekeeper may include a permission record directing thegatekeeper to consult other gatekeepers and/or permissions records, sothat the hierarchy of gatekeepers from block 1302 need not be strictlyfollowed. For example, a virtual world may include a permission recordindicating that the permission records of the securable object are to beconsulted immediately, rather than considering those of the virtualworld, scene, and instance. This could be used to implement, forexample, a service provider policy that the interests of securableobjects being acted upon are to be obeyed in all cases, regardless ofthe implementation of particular worlds and scenes.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example gatekeeper having associatedpermissions records, as used in an embodiment. The diagram is intendedto be merely exemplary and not indicate a required configuration of aparticular gatekeeper or type of gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper 1401 includes three permission records. The first permissionrecord 1402 indicates that an entity named “Bob” is not permitted totake the action of hitting securable objects that are trees. Thus, ifpermission record 1402 is applied, then the entity named “Bob” would beautomatically prevented from attempting to hit trees. Because permissionrecord 1402 is overridable, it may be possible that another gatekeeperfurther down on the hierarchy does permit Bob to take that action.

The second permission record 1403 indicates that entities who are of thetype “wizard” are permitted to take the action of casting spells on anysecurable object. This permission record is indicated as notoverridable, so other gatekeepers further down on the hierarchy may beunable to prevent this permission record from taking effect. Note thatthe entity pattern field in record 1403 does not indicate a particularentity but rather a class of entities, thus greatly increasing theexpressive power of permission records.

The third permission record 1404 indicates that where an entity attemptsto take the action of hitting securable objects that are plants, thepermission value is to be inherited from a previous gatekeeper.

In an embodiment, each gatekeeper may delegate some or all tasks withregard to some or all avatars or objects to other gatekeepers on apermanent, temporary, or revocable basis.

In an embodiment, permission records are considered in a particularorder, which may be defined by gatekeeper 1401 or an appropriateadministrator or user of the system. For example, it will be observedthat if an entity named “Bob” attempts to hit a tree, then permissionrecords 1401 and 1404 would both match. Since record 1401 occurs first,it will take precedence. Alternate embodiments may include differentalgorithms for determining which of several permission records will takeprecedence.

It may seem that an equivalent result could be obtained by omittingpermission record 1404 entirely from gatekeeper 1401, since inheritanceof a previous gatekeeper's permission setting may be automatic where agatekeeper has no matching permission records. However, the ability tospecify inherited permissions may be used, for example, to preventanother permission record from overwriting the previous gatekeeper'ssetting. For example, gatekeeper 1401 may contain a fourth permissionrecord to deny anyone from hitting any securable object. In such a case,permission record 1404 may be used to allow plants to be hit when suchan action is permitted by a previous gatekeeper.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of an example of permission resolution acrossmultiple gatekeeper objects, as used in an embodiment. The diagram isintended to be merely exemplary and not indicate a required process ofpermission resolution. The example of FIG. 15 relates to an attempt byan entity to take some action on some securable object.

In the example of FIG. 15, the hierarchy of gatekeepers includes theservice provider, the virtual world, the scene, the instance, and thesecurable object. At block 1501, the service provider's permissionrecords are consulted to determine whether an action is permitted. Inthe example of FIG. 15, no matching permission is found, so the systemproceeds to the next gatekeeper on the hierarchy.

At block 1502, the virtual world's permission records are consulted, andit is determined that the virtual world allows the attempted action.Thus, the current permission setting of “allow” may be recorded. Sincethe virtual world indicates that the permission is overridable, thesystem proceeds to the next gatekeeper in the hierarchy.

At block 1503, the scene's permission records are consulted, and it isdetermined that the scene inherits the permission setting. Thus, thepermission setting of “allow” from block 1502 is retained as recorded.Since the scene indicates that the permission is overridable, the systemproceeds to the next gatekeeper in the hierarchy.

At block 1504, the instance's permission records are consulted, and itis determined that the instance denies the attempted action. Thus, thepermission setting of “allow,” retained from block 1503, is replacedwith the setting “deny.” Since the instance indicates that thepermission is not overridable, the system concludes permissionresolution. In particular, the securable object's permission records1505 are not consulted, so the attempted action is denied despite thefact that the securable object would have allowed it.

Executable Scripts

Virtual world service providers may include features enabling executablescripts to be uploaded and run on the service providers. These scriptsmay be used to automatically perform various tasks such as performingactions, modifying objects, changing appearances, enabling additionalfunctionality, and the like.

Server-side scripts, as described below, are distinguished fromclient-side scripts, which operate on client devices. Such client-sidescripts may be used to manipulate the graphical representation of thevirtual world as displayed to a user on the client device. Client-sidemanipulations generally do not affect state or data on the serviceprovider. However, a client-side script may be created to send requeststo the service provider in an automated fashion. Client-side scripts mayfurther be created to execute server-side scripts and/or take otheractions through an application programming interface, network protocol,or other communication method offered by the service provider, therebyaffecting state or data on the service provider. The service providermay include software components to detect such client-side scripts andpossibly disable them or otherwise reduce their effectiveness.

Server-side scripts on a virtual world service provider may provide avariety of functions. They may be developed by software developers anddistributed to users of the virtual world service provider in order toprovide those users with enhanced experiences. Scripts may bedistributed in standalone form and installed by users, and/or scriptsmay be bundled with objects, items, and other elements on the virtualworld service provider. In an embodiment, scripts may be distributedand/or sold through a virtual store, for real and/or virtual currency,goods or items.

Scripts may operate on a service provider by manipulating datastructures on the service provider. Accordingly, the service providermay provide a consistent interface for representing components ofdigital worlds, so that the scripts may operate. In an embodiment, thecomponents of digital worlds are represented in a tree-like structuresimilar to the Document Object Model used to represent HTML or XMLdocuments. Examples below are presented in variants of XML markup torepresent the document trees, but it will be understood that thecomponents of digital worlds may be implemented in a variety of formatsand data structures.

FIG. 16 is an example of a layout of an instance of a scene in a virtualworld, as used in an embodiment. The diagram is intended to be merelyexemplary and not represent a required arrangement of items in a sceneor instance.

The graphical representation of the instance 1601 includes a piano 1602,a sofa 1603, and a plant 1604. The objects are represented graphicallyin the user interface 1601. In an embodiment, the objects may berepresented in three dimensions. Internally within a service provider,the instance may be represented as a data structure, such as the datastructure of the table below.

TABLE 2 <scene name=“room1”>  <item type=“piano” location=“5,5” /> <instance id=“1”>   <item type=“sofa” location=“30,30” size=“15” />   <item type=“cushion” color=“red” />    <item type=“cushion”color=“brown” />   </item>   <item type=“plant” leaves=“10”location=“5,40” />  </instance>  <instance id=“2”>   ...  </instance></scene>

The code representation indicates the objects in the scene and instance,as well as various attributes and sub-objects. For example, each of theobjects in the listing includes a location attribute, which maycorrespond with the location of the object in the scene or instance.

Certain objects may be specifically associated with the scene orinstance. For example, in the above listing, the piano object isassociated with the scene, while the sofa and plant objects areassociated with the instance. Thus, other instances of the same scenemay or may not include the sofa or plant, but they would include thepiano by default. In an alternate embodiment, default attributes of thescene may be maintained under a separate subtree within the <scene> data(such as a <default-layout> tree), and newly created instances may copythe objects from the default attributes upon creation.

Scripts may then be attached to parts of the document tree, in anembodiment. Scripts may be implemented as interpreted code, such asJavascript code, and be embedded within the document tree. The tablebelow illustrates a sample document tree with script embedded at variouslevels of the tree structure.

TABLE 3 <scene>  <instance>   <object 1>    <script name=“script 1”params=“int, string”>     [script code]    </script>    <script2>...</script>   </object>   <object 2>    <script 3>...</script>   <object 3>     <script 4>...</script 4>    </object>   </object>  <script on instance>...</script>  </instance>  <script onscene>...</script> </scene>

In the example of this table, a scene includes an instance with objects1 and 2, and object 2 includes a sub-object 3. Object 1 includes twoscripts, 1 and 2; object 2 includes script 3, and object 3 includesscript 4. Furthermore, the instance has an additional script, and thescene has an additional script.

Scripts may execute various functions to manipulate the document tree inwhich they are placed. For example, a script may add nodes, removenodes, manipulate attributes of nodes, reorder nodes, and so on. It maybe desirable to limit the extent to which a script is able to modify thedocument tree, for security and usability reasons. For example, thesystem may be configured to enable a script to be attached to an object,so that the script may manipulate the object appearances, but notmanipulate the appearance of avatars or other objects in the scene.

In an embodiment, scripts are limited to modifying the document tree ofthe node that is the parent to the script, and associated sub-nodes. Inthe example above, scripts 1 and 2 would be permitted to modify object1, but not objects 2 or 3, and not the instance or scene generally.Script 3 would be able to modify objects 2 and 3, and script 4 would beable to modify object 3 but not object 2 (as the parent of script 4 isobject 3). In this embodiment, the instance script would be able tomodify the instance and all objects therein, but not be able to modifythe scene. This may be useful for an administrator or leader of theinstance, to rearrange or clean up the instance. The scene script wouldbe able to modify the scene, as well as all instances and objectstherein. This may be useful for making global changes across allinstances of a scene that are in operation.

It may nevertheless still be desirable for a script attached to oneobject to be able to affect another object in certain ways. For example,a dog may include a script that causes the dog to run around within ascene. This may cause the dog to eventually crash into an object such asa table. Since the script is attached to the dog and not the table, thescript alone may not be able to modify the table object to reflect thatthe table has been knocked over.

Thus, in an embodiment, the system provides an inter-script messagingservice enabling scripts to trigger execution of other scripts. In theprevious example, when the dog script causes the dog to crash into thetable, the dog script may invoke a script on the table, causing thetable to perform a “crash receipt” function. Such a function mayconsequently cause changes in the table object, such as falling over orbreaking into pieces.

In one embodiment, the conversion of objects from one type to anotherand/or conversions at boundary events, and/or entrance to an area mayprovoke a script compatibility check to determine whether introductionof an object may conflict with another script or scripted object. Usingthe above example, if an avatar attempts to enter a room with his dog, aquery may be made as to whether there are objects in the room that arenot capable of receiving messages from a “dog” script, such as “dog raninto you.” If, in the above example, the table was not capable ofreceiving such messages, entry may be denied to the dog, certainfunctionality of the dog may be disabled or limited, and/or certainincompatible objects may be changed, such as by making the table “boltedto the ground.” In another embodiment, objects may be associated withscripts intended for operation by other objects, such as a dog that iscapable of delivering a “dog ran into you” script for one or more typesof other objects. In such a case, entry of the dog may be conditionedupon successful transmission of such script.

Since the script on the table object is associated with the table, itmay be possible for the designer of the table to implement scripts thatperform unexpected actions. For example, when the dog crashes into thetable, the invoked script on the table may cause the table to double insize. In an embodiment, the system may be configured to detect andprevent such unexpected actions. For example, the system may includeassertions of expected behavior when scripts are executed, and preventscripts from causing changes that violate those assertions of expectedbehavior. In an embodiment, the assertions may be programmed throughscripts on instances, scenes, virtual worlds, and/or service providers.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a process of executing scripts, as used in anembodiment. The process may be performed by a service provider. Invarious embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks maybe removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

At block 1701, the system identifies a script to be executed. Theexecution of the script may be invoked by another script, by a user, byan automated process, or the like. At block 1702, the system determinesthe parent object of the script, and enables the script to modify theparent object at block 1703. In executing the script, the system mayobserve the execution to prevent modifications outside the parent objectand/or to prevent undesirable modifications.

At block 1704, the system receives a message directed to an externalscript. The message may be invoked by performing a special function callto the system, identifying the object and script to be invoked. In anembodiment, the message may further include one or more parameters forthe external script. The parameters may be matched to the script beingcalled. For example, as shown in the above code listing, script 1 takestwo parameters, an integer and a string. In an embodiment, the systemraises an error if the proper parameters for the external script do notmatch the parameters provided in the message.

At block 1705, the system determines authorization to execute theexternal script. Scripts may be blocked from calling external scriptsfor a variety of reasons. For example, a script may be prevented fromcalling another script located in a different instance, scene, virtualworld, and/or service provider. Additionally, a script may be preventedfrom calling another script based on the permissions system describedpreviously. In an embodiment, the call to the external script may be inthe form of an action, so that the permissions resolution process may beperformed.

If the script is authorized to call the external script at block 1705,then at block 1706 the system executes the external script, repeatingthe process at block 1701 on the external script. In some cases, such aswhere the external script is located at a different service provider,the external script may be executed by a different service provider orsystem.

Due to the recursive nature of execution of scripts, it is possible thatan erroneously or maliciously designed script may loop indefinitely,attempt to call an unreasonable number of external scripts, or otherwisedelay or prevent normal execution of the virtual worlds system on theservice provider. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the service providermay implement resource limits, such as time and/or memory usage limits,to prevent scripts from unboundedly executing. The service provider mayadditionally implement a system that charges real or virtual currency,goods or services in exchange for execution time.

Service Provider System

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a service provider system and relatedcomputer systems, as used in an embodiment. The service provider systemmay be used as service provider 901 of FIG. 9, for example. In variousembodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may beremoved, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

Service provider system 1801 may include several computer systems. Theincluded computer systems may be housed on a single device and/orseparate devices, and each of the computer systems may similarlycomprise multiple computing devices, as in distributed or cloudcomputing. The computer systems, when housed on separate devices, may beconnected by a local or wide area network, and/or by other communicationsystems.

One component of service provider system 1801 may be service providerentrypoint 1802. The entrypoint may be a server or other device with anetwork connection to external networks, providing an outward-facinginterface for external clients such as users. In an embodiment, externalnetwork requests directed to service provider system 1801 are initiallydirected to entrypoint 1802. In an embodiment, multiple entrypoints 1802are included to facilitate distributed computing and handle high userloads.

The entrypoint system 1802 may provide various features to the serviceprovider system 1801. For example, it may provide 2-dimensionalrendering services, allowing traditional web-based browser clients toaccess content offered by the service provider system without requiring3-dimensional rendering capabilities. Such requests may be detected, forexample, as standard HTTP web requests, and the entrypoint system 1802or other computing system may respond with HTML, XML, plain text, RTF,streaming audio/video, images, and/or other appropriately formattedcontent. By offering 2-dimensional rendering, the content, including3-dimensional virtual worlds content, may be indexed by search enginesand accessed by those with disabilities or using computing systems thatimpair usage of 3-dimensionally rendered worlds.

Instance hosts 1803 operate instances of virtual worlds, as describedabove. Each instance host 1803 may serve a single instance or multipleinstances, in various embodiments. Instance hosts may be separatecomputing devices, virtual servers, or modules operating on a server.Some or all of the instance hosts may operate on the same computingdevice as entrypoint 1802.

Entrypoint system 1802 may further provide load balancing services toservice provider system 1801. For example, entrypoint 1802 may directvirtual worlds users to a particular instance host 1803, depending onfactors such as the configuration of the service provider, virtualworld, and/or scene; the number of users in each instance;characteristics of the requesting user and/or request such as speciallocation identifiers requesting a particular instance; the hardwarecapabilities and capacities of the instance hosts; and the like.Entrypoint 1802 may further start and/or shut down instance hosts 1803based on these and other factors.

The entrypoint 1802 and/or instance hosts 1803 may further communicatewith service provider database 1804. The database may maintaininformation such as virtual worlds data, scene data, instance data, userdata, avatar data, and so on. The database may include data structuressuch as those shown in FIGS. 10-12, as well as other data structures asdescribed throughout this specification, such as virtual world documentsin the DOM format described previously.

Service provider system 1801 may further communicate with externalentities, for example via network 1807. Root server 1805 may providegeneral services across multiple service providers, such as useraccounting services, accounting of real and/or virtual currency, avatartransfer services as described with respect to FIG. 3, and the like.Thus, service providers 1801 may communicate with root server 1805 touse these services. The communications may be encrypted and/orauthenticated to ensure that unauthorized users are not able toillicitly obtain information from root server 1805.

Service provider system 1801 may further communicate with users 1806 toprovide virtual worlds services in 2 and/or 3 dimensions, based on theclient software and other preferences of user 1806. Users mayadditionally communicate with root server 1805 for various purposes,such as viewing directories of operational service providers andmanaging accounts and/or finances.

Connection to Real World Data

Service provider system 1801 may also communicate with external datasources 1808. These sources may enable service provider system 1801 tolink real-world data into the virtual world. Objects, graphics, avatars,and/or virtual spaces may use virtual data obtained from external datasources 1808 or other sources. For example, one scene in a virtual worldmay be a virtual store where avatars can browse around and shop forproducts. The store may include virtual representations of actualproducts, drawn from external data, and the prices and availability ofthe products may be tied to an actual store's inventory, so that avatarsviewing products within the store have access to actual purchasinginformation. In an embodiment, the external data is used to updatecontent on the service provider system 1801 in real time.

In an embodiment, service provider system 1801 is further able totransmit data to external systems. For example, in the virtual storedescribed above, an avatar may acquire an item in the virtual world,such as by purchasing it with real or virtual currency. In such asituation, the service provider system 1801, through the entrypoint1802, an instance host 1803, and/or another mechanism, may send acommand or instruction to an external system, ordering a correspondingproduct, so that the actual product may be shipped to a personassociated with the avatar. Other actions that service provider system1801 may take on external systems may include financial transfers,property transfers, posting of content to external sites such as socialnetworks, sending emails, and so on.

Communications between the service provider system 1801, external datasources 1808, and other external systems opens the possibility that asecurity compromise on one of the systems may affect the integrity ofanother. Accordingly, service provider system 1801 may include firewallsand/or other security measures to control security breaches fromexternal systems. Additionally, service provider system 1801 mayincrease security by restricting communications to certain protocols,using authentication and encryption, and/or validating users, such aswith two-factor authentication.

Namespaces and Two-Dimensional Representations

Three-dimensional representations of virtual worlds may be displayed onspecialized client software configured to render the three-dimensionalrepresentation. Service providers and other systems may further servecontent to traditional two-dimensional browsers and related software.Providing both representations may have several benefits, includingbackwards compatibility, search engine indexing capabilities,accommodations of disabilities, and the like.

In order to provide 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional services inappropriate situations, some embodiments include separate namespaces fordifferentiating between services. Thus, clients capable of rendering3-dimensional virtual worlds can be served appropriate content differentfrom that served to clients requesting 2-dimensional content.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a process of serving content based onnamespaces, as used in an embodiment. Portions of the process may beperformed by service provider systems 1801 of FIG. 18, includingentrypoint 1802 and instance host 1803. In various embodiments,additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/orblocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 1901, a user sends a request to a service provider. The requestis received by the service provider entrypoint at block 1902. Therequest may identify a particular scene that the user wishes to enter.The request may include further information such as avatar information,authentication information, and the like. The request may be sent in asingle network transaction or divided among multiple networktransactions.

In an embodiment, the request is formatted as a Uniform Resource Locator(URL). The request may take on the following form:

-   -   [protocol]://[service provider]/[scene]?[query]#[location]

The [protocol] element may identify the form of communication in whichthe request is communicated at block 1901. In an embodiment, theprotocol may be “http,” indicating a standard Web request, or “vww,”indicating a virtual world web request. Other protocol identifiers maybe used and understood by service providers. The [service provider]element may identify the network location of the service provider, forexample by domain name or IP address. The [scene] identifier mayidentify the particular scene on the service provider to be accessed. Inan embodiment, scenes may be organized in a hierarchical structure, suchas by virtual worlds within a service provider as described previously,in which case the [scene] identifier may also be hierarchicallystructured, for example by using hierarchical elements separated by acharacter such as a slash.

The [query] identifier may include parameters relating to aspects of thescene to be accessed. The identifier may take the form of one or morekey-value pairs, each key and value being joined by an equals sign, andthe pairs being joined together with ampersands, for example. In anembodiment, one such parameter may identify a particular instance of ascene to be joined by the requesting user. This may be used, forexample, to enable the user to join an instance where other users ofinterest, such as the users' friends, are present. The service providermay take the request for the instance into account, but it may choose todisregard the selected instance, for load balancing, capacity, and/orother reasons. By providing the ability for users to access particularinstances of scenes by URL, the service provider may thus allow users topublish locations (for example, on websites, social media, emailcommunications, and so on) so that other users can join the sameinstance by accessing the same URL.

The [location] identifier may identify a place in the scene to beaccessed by the user. For example, the user may wish to appear on oneside of a room in a scene, and may specify the location using thisidentifier. In an embodiment, the identifier may correspond to an anchortag inserted into the Document Object Model. For example, the tablebelow illustrates a sample DOM related to the scene shown in FIG. 16:

TABLE 4 <scene name=“room1”>  <item type=“piano” location=“5,5” /> <item type=“sofa” location=“30,30” size=“15” />   <a id=“sofa” /> </item>  <item type=“plant” leaves=“10” location=“5,40”>   <aid=“plant-right” position=“right”>  </item> </scene>By accessing a URL with a location identifier of “#sofa,” the user'savatar may be placed on the sofa upon entering the scene. Similarly, byaccessing a URL with a location identifier of “#plant-right,” the user'savatar may be placed to the right of the plant.

In various embodiments, the URL may be structured or organizeddifferently, as appropriate to the configuration of the serviceprovider. Additionally, the URL may represent the location to beaccessed as viewed on the client computer, while components of the URLmay be transmitted in a different form, as is done in HTTP, for example.

At block 1903, the entrypoint determines whether the request is avirtual world client request. This determination may identify whetherthe client is requesting 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional content. Therequest may be made based on a number of factors. For example, theprotocol identifier may distinguish such requests, where an HTTP requestindicates a request for 2-dimensional content, while a VWW requestindicates a request for 3-dimensional content. The distinction mayadditionally or alternatively be made based on an identifier of theclient software making the request, such as a User-Agent header.

In one embodiment, the capabilities of the client and/or the bandwidthavailable to the client are utilized either on the client end, incrafting a User-Agent header or similar request modifier, or on theserver end, in determining what kind of data to serve. In oneimplementation, content less demanding than the full 3D content, butmore than the 2D content, may be transmitted in order to maximize theuser experience by avoiding exceeding capabilities of the user machineor bandwidth.

If the entrypoint determines that the request is for 2-dimensionalcontent, then at block 1904 the service provider may transmit standardweb content to the requesting user. The standard content may includestatic content, such as general information relating to the serviceprovider and virtual worlds therein. It may additionally oralternatively include dynamic content, such as information relating tothe virtual worlds and/or 2-dimensional renderings of scenes in theworlds. In an embodiment, the 2-dimensional renderings are generated inreal time. The renderings may also be videos and/or streaming content,enabling viewers of the 2-dimensional content to watch live content ofactivities in the virtual worlds. The renderings may be determined bythe service provider in accordance with particular rules for translating3-dimensional content into two dimensions. These determinations may becontrolled by content, such as “alt” tags, within the internalrepresentation of scenes and/or instances.

The 2-dimensional rendering may further include textual contentdescribing the activities in the virtual worlds. The textual content maybe manually generated by operators or users on the service provider.Additionally or alternatively, the textual content may be automaticallygenerated by graphical analysis of metadata within the virtual worlds,possibly producing a live transcript or feed of activities. By providingtextual content, the service provider may facilitate automatic searchengine indexing processes, thereby providing a measure of search engineoptimization (SEO) and encouraging outside individuals to visit thevirtual world.

In one embodiment, textual content is provided in a manner suited toautomated reading for the visually impaired, including transmission ofthe textual content in audio format. Such content may thus be formattedin specific ways, such as for screen-reader software, possibly based onuser preferences.

The 2-dimensional rendering may further include information tofacilitate entry into the 3-dimensional virtual worlds. For example, thecontent may include a link to the 3-dimensional representation (such asa “vww://” protocol link). The content may further include a link tosoftware, such as a desktop application, mobile device application,browser plugin, and so on, enabling the client computer to view3-dimensional content.

Information in the 2-dimensional content may further allow for automaticaccess to 3-dimensional content. For example, a link to the3-dimensional representation may be included in a <META> tag, aJavascript or other refresh command, or the like. The client computer'sbrowser may be configured to recognize such links and automaticallyexecute an appropriate virtual worlds browser to access the linkedlocation. In an embodiment, the browser may display the 3-dimensionalcontent internally within its windowing system, so that a user is ableto flip back and forth between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensionalcontent.

The 2-dimensional content may further include interactive featuresenabling the user to interact with the virtual worlds without having toview them directly. For example, the 2-dimensional content may include achat function, enabling the user to communicate with others within thevirtual world. In such an embodiment, communications spoken or otherwisemade within the virtual world may be translated to text in the chatfunction so as to be viewable by the user accessing 2-dimensionalcontent, and text entered into the chat function may be spoken orotherwise presented in the 3-dimensional representation of the world, toother avatars. In an embodiment, the 2-dimensional representationincludes audio communication, such as Voice-over-IP, enabling furthercommunication with avatars in the 3-dimensional representation.

Additionally, a user accessing the 2-dimensional representation may berepresented by an avatar in the 3-dimensional representation, so thatthe user is visible to other avatars. Often the user accessing the2-dimensional representation will have limited access orfunctionalities, such as not being able to move or communicate aseasily. To indicate this, in an embodiment, the user accessing the2-dimensional representation may be indicated as a special avatar, suchas a glowing sphere, distinguishable from other avatars (who may berepresented, for example, like human figures). In one embodiment, therepresentation of the avatar tracks the limitations of the useroperating the avatar, such as by making an avatar using a 2D browserappear flat rather than rendered in 3D.

Both the 2-dimensional representation and the 3-dimensionalrepresentation may, in various embodiments, be configurable to meet userpreferences. For example, a view preference may indicate a particular2-dimensional representation desired by the user, such as an overheadrepresentation, a representation from a particular vantage point in thescene, or the like. Other preferences may determine the language, size,appearance, verbosity, and other information presented therein. Thepreferences may be indicated by the user and stored in association witha user account, a cookie on the user's browser, and the like. Thepreferences may additionally or alternatively be determined by theservice provider, for example based on default preferences and/orpreferences relating to similar users such as geographically similarusers, friends of the user, users with the same language, and the like.

The 2-dimensional content, as described above, may be received by theuser at block 1905. As described above, the content may optionallyinclude certain tags and/or data enabling automatic transitions to the3-dimensional content, and the user's browser or other software may beconfigured to detect these tags and/or data, for example through abrowser plugin. At block 1911, the browser plugin or other softwaredetects such tags and/or data, and invokes the virtual world client,identifying the appropriate URL or other identifier to be accessed bythe virtual world client. In response, the virtual world clientinitiates a second request to the service provider at block 1901.

If, at block 1903, the entrypoint determines that 3-dimensional contentis to be served to the user, then at block 1906 the service providercreates and/or selects an instance host and/or instance of the requestedscene, to service the user. The instance host and/or instance may beselected based on factors applied by the entrypoint as described above,such as load balancing, avatar capacity of instances, requests for aparticular instance in the URL, and the like. The service provider maydetermine that a new instance is to be created, in which case it maystart up a new instance host as necessary. In some embodiments, only oneinstance host may be used for a particular scene, in which case theinstance host need not be selected.

When the appropriate instance host is identified, then at block 1907 theuser is directed to access the instance host. In an embodiment, theentrypoint sends a redirection message to the user, identifying thelocation of the instance host to be accessed, such as through a secondURL. The URL may be coded as a one-time URL or otherwise made accessibleonly to that user, for example through session identifiers stored incookies, so that the user or other users are prevented from bypassingthe entrypoint and directly accessing the instance host later. Theentrypoint may alternately act as a proxy and direct network trafficbetween the user and the instance host, so that the user need not beaware of the particular instance host being accessed or even be able toaccess the instance host directly.

At block 1908, the user receives the direction to access the instancehost, and at block 1909, the user contacts the instance host. Theinstance host responds, at block 1910, by enabling the user to interactwith the instance of the scene. In an embodiment, for further securityprecautions, the instance host confers with the entrypoint or serviceprovider database to confirm that the user is authorized to interactwith the particular instance.

Object Cleanup

As described above, a virtual world may include multiple instances of ascene, with each instance including objects and other characteristicsbased on an initial layout of the scene. As avatars interact with theinstances, those objects and characteristics may be modified, forexample by being moved, taken, destroyed, altered, added, or otherwisemanipulated. As a result, an avatar may enter a first instance of ascene and then enter a second instance of the same scene, leading to apotentially disconcerting appearance that the same “scene” hasdrastically changed. Furthermore, in some embodiments, instances ofscenes may be overlaid through semitransparent displays or othermechanisms, for example so that an avatar in one instance of a scene maysee all the avatars in other instances simultaneously. If there aresubstantial differences between the objects of the scene, then thediscrepancies may be visible to avatars and may detract from theirexperiences.

For example, it may be desired that certain actions occur when avatarsleave a region. For example, it may be desired for a coffee shop sceneto be cleaned up when all the avatars have left (or all the avatarsother than the shop staff have left). Then, the region may revert (inwhole or in part, depending on the instructions each object has or theinstructions the objects inherit from other objects or the region) to a“clean,” previously held, or other state. In one application, this mightbe similar to having a cleaning crew instantly clean a club once theclub's last patron has departed. Optionally, the reversion action may bemanually triggered by the proprietor. Optionally, such a manual triggermay be operational only when certain conditions (such as the absence ofany avatars other than those in certain categories, like owner of thefacility) are met. Such limitations may serve to prevent the virtualspace from disruptively being altered while users are still present.

Accordingly, in an embodiment, instances of scenes include functionalityto automatically “clean up” objects and other characteristics tocorrespond with the original layout of the scene. The cleanup proceduresmay be configured, as described below, to appear natural or minimize thevisibility of the procedures, so that the cleanup procedures do notappear abnormal within the virtual reality environment.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a process of cleaning up an instance of ascene. The process may be performed, for example, by service provider1801 of FIG. 18, such as by an instance host 1803. In variousembodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may beremoved, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently fromwhat is shown.

At block 2001, an instance of a scene is created within a serviceprovider. Multiple instances may be created, and they may be displayedat block 2002. As explained above, the instances may be graphicallyoverlaid in 2-dimensional and/or 3-dimensional representations, throughpartial transparency for example. Users may then manipulate instances atblock 2003, by adding, altering, and/or removing objects or othercharacteristics within each instance. Accordingly, the instances mayhave substantial differences from the original layout of the scene.

At block 2004, an instruction to clean up one or more objects or othercharacteristics in an instance is received. The particular cleanuproutines may be defined by the service provider, virtual world, and/orscene. Some scenes may find some or all discrepancies between instancesto be acceptable, in which case no cleanup would be required.Furthermore, the timing of the instruction at block 2004 may be based onthe status of the instance. In an embodiment, the instruction is sentwhen a defined minimum of avatars (such as zero avatars) are present inthe scene, so that cleanup activities are less noticeable.

Upon receiving the instruction at block 2004, the system determineswhether the object to be cleaned up is in its original position and/orother state at block 2005. If the object is in its original position andstate, then the system proceeds to block 2006 and ends the cleanupprocedure for that object. It may then proceed to cleanup another objector characteristic. Additionally, a degree of variation may be acceptablefor an object in a scene, so that the determination at block 2005 may bewhether the object is in an acceptable position and/or state.

If the system determines that the object is not in an acceptableposition at block 2005, then at block 2007, the system determines a pathfor replacing the object and/or reinstating its original condition. Theobject may be placed into its original position, added, altered and/orremoved. The path may include a direction to move the object, analteration to the object's appearance, a fade-in or fade-out of theobject, and the like. In one implementation, the “acceptable position”may be determined as an average position of the similar object in aplurality of other representations of the same environment.

The path may further include an actor to cause the change. The objectmay make the alteration automatically. For example, a plant that needsto be moved across the floor may be picked up and moved by an avatar orit may slide across the floor on its own. In the case of automaticalterations, the change may be made gradual, so that it is not easilynoticeable to observers. Additionally or alternately, a non-playercharacter, such as a bot, may be introduced to effect the desiredchange. For example, in a virtual restaurant scene, chairs and/or tablesmay be moved, and the cleanup procedure may include waiters, operated byautomated scripts and/or programs, who replace the chairs and/or tablesto their desired locations.

The selected path for replacing objects may be based on the conditionsof the instance as well. For example, where the instance is crowded withavatars, the cleanup routine may be more gradual, whereas when theinstance is empty, the cleanup may be faster. Additionally, the routealong which the replacement occurs may be selected based on whereavatars and/or other elements are located within the instance. Tocalculate this path, algorithms such as Dijkstra's algorithm may beemployed.

At block 2008, the object is moved and/or altered in accordance with thepath determined at block 2007. If further alterations are to beperformed, then the process returns to block 2005 to continueadjustments until the desired state is reached.

FIG. 21 is a sample user interface depicting an instance of a scene tobe cleaned up, as used in an embodiment. The user interface may beoperated in a virtual world browser, such that a 3-dimensionalrepresentation may be shown rather than the 2-dimensional overhead viewof FIG. 21.

The graphical representation of the scene 2101 may include variouselements such as plant 2102, piano 2103, sofa 2104, and/or door 2105. Inaccordance with cleanup procedures, changes may be made to theseobjects. For example, plant 2102 may be restored to location 2106. Itmay be automatically slid across the floor (e.g., slowly over a periodof several minutes or even hours), faded out and faded into its originallocation, and/or carried to its original position by a non-playercharacter such as a virtual butler or maid. The lid of piano 2103 mayadditionally be raised, and door 2105 may be closed. The timing of thesechanges may be based on aspects of the scene and/or instance, such asthe number of avatars present, the time of day, the load on the instancehost and/or service provider, and the like.

Object Clouds

A virtual world may include a vast amount of information, and avatarsconsidering which world to visit may desire a summary of thatinformation to make that decision and/or for other reasons. Innon-virtual worlds situations such as HTML content, structures such astag clouds may be used to summarize information.

Thus, in an embodiment, an object cloud may be presented to avatars, tosummarize the information relating to a virtual world, scene, and/orinstance. The object cloud may represent various characteristics of theworld, scene, and/or instance, and utilize the 3-dimensionalcapabilities of the virtual world system to effectively present theinformation.

Although the embodiments described herein relate to information in avirtual world system, the object cloud embodiments described herein neednot be so limited. For example, augmented reality systems maysuperimpose object clouds onto the real world, such as throughhead-mounted displays. Thus, real-world data may be used to constructobject clouds, in addition or alternatively to virtual world data.

Object clouds may be displayed at various locations within the virtualworld system. For example, avatars may view object clouds while intransit between virtual worlds. Object clouds for a location may bepresented on virtual trains or buses headed to that location. Virtualtravel agencies may display object clouds of different locations, asadvertisements for those locations. Additionally, object clouds may berepresented in 2-dimensional views, so that users without browserscapable of rendering 3-dimensional views are able to obtain similarinformation. Object clouds may also display information aboutindividuals: an avatar may view an object cloud of all of the avatar'spossessions and/or another avatar's possessions, for example. Suchobject clouds may be useful in playing role-playing games, so that theavatar may quickly determine what items are available to the avatar.

Indeed, object clouds may be implemented within the two dimensional web.Rather than utilizing a word cloud, stock or other photography may besubstituted for the words, but the relative size and placement of atraditional word cloud may be retained, simply substituting the imagesfor some or all of the words. In addition to traditional word cloudelements, image transparency may also be employed to represent theimportance of an image to the data being summarized.

FIG. 22 is a sample user interface displaying a virtual world objectcloud, as used in an embodiment. The interface may be presented on avirtual world browser and be based on data provided by a serviceprovider entrypoint and/or instance host, for example. Although therepresentation in FIG. 22 is in two dimensions, in various embodiments3-dimensional representations may be employed, which may have particularadvantages as described below.

Object cloud display 2201 includes several figures, such as piano 2202,shopping icons 2203, cocktail icon 2204, and/or car icon 2205. Theseicons may represent information relating to a particular virtual world,scene, and/or instance. For example, the object cloud may indicate that,at a certain virtual location, current events include piano music,shopping, drinking, and car racing. The object cloud may indicatecurrent information, past information future information, and/or anyother information, and the particular information displayed may be basedon user selection.

The presentation of the object cloud may further convey informationabout each of the displayed items, further enhancing the informationcapacity of the object cloud. For example, the size of items in theobject cloud may indicate the related event's popularity, attendance,size, and/or other attributes. In object cloud display 2201, the smallershopping icon 2203 may indicate that shopping is a less popular activityat the particular location in the virtual world, while piano music is amore popular option, as indicated by the large piano icon 2202. Otheraspects of the display, such as the position of objects in the cloud,may provide further information. For example, the car icon 2205 isplaced closer to the viewing avatar while the piano icon 2202 is placedfurther from the avatar, which may indicate that car racing is nearer indistance to the avatar's current location. Size and/or location may beused to convey other information such as time of events, duration ofevents, cost, interest and/or popularity, for example. Other dimensionsof the cloud, such as height, horizontal spread, motion, rotation, andthe like may further indicate information.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a process of constructing an object cloud, asused in an embodiment. The process may be performed, for example, byservice provider system 1801 of FIG. 18, and it may construct an objectcloud such as that shown in FIG. 22. In various embodiments, additionalblocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may beconnected or arranged differently from what is shown.

At block 2301, the system identifies objects in, and/or othercharacteristics of, a real or virtual space. The rules for thedetermination may be based on a selection by the user requesting theobject cloud, and the rules may include the location of the identifiedobjects and characteristics, the types of objects and characteristics tobe identified, the types of aggregations to perform, and the like. Otheritems may be identified, such as events, spaces, avatars, products,services, and the like.

At block 2302, the identified objects may be aggregated into groups. Theaggregation enables the object cloud to act as a summary for a largenumber of objects and/or characteristics. The aggregations may be basedon metadata and/or information about the relevant objects and/orcharacteristics, such as properties, tags, attributes, and the like. Theaggregation process of block 2302 may further identify information to beused in constructing the object cloud. For example, where events areidentified at block 2301, the popularity and/or attendance at the eventsmay be identified at block 2302.

At block 2303, the groups identified at block 2302 are summarized intographical representations. This may include mapping the groups ontoicons, graphics, and the like. The mapping may be based on a stored mapof groups to icons within the service provider database. The mapping maybe specific to service providers, worlds, scenes, and/or instances.

At block 2304, the graphical representations are arranged into a cloud.The arrangement procedure may determine aspects such as the position,size, movement, rotation, and the like, for the various graphicalrepresentations. This determination of aspects may be based, forexample, on the attributes identified at block 2302, as well as otherinformation.

When the graphical representations have been arranged into a cloud, thenat block 2305 the constructed object cloud is displayed and/ortransmitted to the user for display. The displaying process may includerendering a 3-dimensional representation of the cloud into twodimensions, in the case that the user is viewing the object cloud on a2-dimensional-capable viewer. In alternate embodiments, the object cloudmay be reduced to textual, audio, video, and/or other representations,for example to enable alternate displays and/or to allow for searchengine indexing of the object cloud.

Computing System

FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a computing system as used in anembodiment. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included,some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arrangeddifferently from what is shown.

The computing system of FIG. 24 may be, for example, a service provider,a root server, a virtual worlds server, an entrypoint, an instance host,and/or another computing system. Computing system 2401 may be one ormore computing devices, including computer hardware. Computing system2401 may further include one or more modules which may be implemented asexecutable instructions in software and/or hardware such as circuitry.Computing system 2401 may further include data storage systems such ashard disks, read only memory, random access memory, flash memory,removable storage media, and the like.

The computing system 2401 may be a general purpose computer using one ormore microprocessors, such as, for example, an Intel® Pentium®processor, an Intel® Pentium® II processor, an Intel® Pentium® Proprocessor, an Intel® Pentium® IV processor, an Intel® Pentium® Dprocessor, an Intel® Core™ processor, an xx86 processor, an 8051processor, a MIPS processor, a Power PC processor, a SPARC processor, anAlpha processor, and so forth. The computer may run a variety ofoperating systems that perform standard operating system functions suchas, for example, opening, reading, writing, and closing a file. It isrecognized that other operating systems may be used, such as, forexample, Microsoft® Windows® 3.X, Microsoft® Windows 98, Microsoft®Windows® 2000, Microsoft® Windows® NT, Microsoft® Windows® CE,Microsoft® Windows® ME, Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows® 7, Palm PilotOS, Apple® MacOS®, Disk Operating System (DOS), UNIX, IRIX, Solaris,SunOS, FreeBSD, Linux®, or IBM® OS/2® operating systems. In otherembodiments, the computing system 2401 may be controlled by aproprietary operating system. Conventional operating systems control andschedule computer processes for execution, perform memory management,provide file system, networking, I/O services, and provide a userinterface, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), among otherthings.

The computing system 2401 may include one or more central processingunits (“CPU”) 2401, which may each include one or more conventional orproprietary microprocessor(s). The computing system 2401 may furtherinclude one or more memories 2402, such as random access memory (“RAM”),for temporary storage of information, read only memory (“ROM”) forpermanent storage of information, and/or a mass storage device 2403,such as a hard drive, diskette, or optical media storage device. Thememory 2402 may store software code, or instructions, for execution bythe processor 2401 in order to cause the computing device to performcertain operations, such as gathering sensor-related data, processingthe data with statistical and/or predictive models, formatting data foruser devices or other presentation, transmitting data, or otheroperations described or used herein.

The methods described and claimed herein may be performed by anysuitable computing device, such as the computing system 2401. Themethods may be executed on such suitable computing devices in responseto execution of software instructions or other executable code read froma tangible computer readable medium or computer storage device. Acomputer readable medium is a data storage device that can store datathat is readable by a computer system. Examples of computer readablemediums include read-only memory, random-access memory, other volatileor non-volatile memory devices, CD-ROMs, magnetic tape, flash drives,and optical data storage devices.

The computing system 2401 may include one or more input/output (I/O)devices and interfaces 2404, such as a keyboard, trackball, mouse,drawing tablet, joystick, game controller, touchscreen (e.g., capacitiveor resistive touchscreen), touchpad, accelerometer, and/or printer, forexample. The computing system 2401 may also include one or moremultimedia devices 2405, such as a display device (also referred toherein as a display screen), which may also be one of the I/O devices2404 in the case of a touchscreen, for example. Display devices mayinclude LCD, OLED, or other thin screen display surfaces, a monitor,television, projector, or any other device that visually depicts userinterfaces and data to viewers. The computing system 2401 may alsoinclude one or more multimedia devices, such as speakers, video cards,graphics accelerators, and microphones, for example.

In one embodiment, the I/O devices and interfaces 2404 provide acommunication interface to various external devices via a network suchas network 103 of FIG. 1. For example, the computing system 2401 may beelectronically coupled to the network 103 via a wired, wireless, orcombination of wired and wireless, communication link(s). The network103 may allow communication with various other computing devices and/orother electronic devices via wired or wireless communication links.

Computing system 2401 may also include one or more modules which may beimplemented as hardware or software including executable instructions.In an embodiment, computing system 2401 includes virtual worlds module2406, accounts module 2407, and authentication module 2408. In variousembodiments, additional modules may be included and/or any subset ofthese modules may be included. In various embodiments, one or more ofvirtual worlds module 2406, accounts module 2407, and authenticationmodule 2408 may be housed on separate computing devices connected via anetwork or other communications system. In an embodiment, each of themodules is housed on a separate computing device thereby enablingdifferent security settings to be implemented for each of the modules.The modules perform various processes and operations as describedthroughout the specification.

Multilayer Component and Interface System

Aspects of the present technology may be conceptualized as arranged in asystem of distinct layers of components and interfaces. Referring toFIG. 25, each layer within the system offers components and interfacesthat may be imported and/or exported to a service provider 2504 and/orinstance host 2506. A first layer (“Layer 1”, “L1”, “Layer 1 interface”or “L1 interface”) refers to generic or high-level components orworkflow interfaces used to service operations of the virtual worldsystem, and may be analogized to an operating system for a computer. Asecond layer (“Layer 1”, “L1”, “Layer 2 component”, or “L2 component”)controls instantiation of specific components, i.e. three-dimensionalscenes and objects in the virtual world system, by exporting one or moreinterfaces from the Layer 1 interface. The layer 2 component may beimplemented as a plug-in based on a Managed Extensibility Framework(MEF), for example. A third layer (“Layer 3” or “L3”) may be used torefer to specific instances of the virtual world system wherein one ormore clients 2508 participate and control events and objects inside amodeled three-dimensional scene.

Layer 1 can include functions which define, create, and maintainentities, spaces, abilities, permissions, components and other objectsof a virtual world system. For example, L1 may provide the followingtypes of exported interfaces:

IComponentSystem—Allows components to obtain information about otherinstalled components.

IPermissionSystem—Allows components to define permissions, createpermissions, assign permission to entities, and determine whetherpermissions are available for various objects in the context of variousclients

IAbilitySystem—Allows components to define abilities, assign abilitiesto entities, and determine whether abilities are available for variousobjects in the context of various clients.

IEntitySystem—Allows components to create entities and interface withentities. Personas, social groups, avatars, etc. may be created in thistype of interface.

IWorldspaceSystem—Allows components to create and interface with objectsin world space, e.g. worlds, scenes, instances, etc.

IChatSystem—Allows components to create chat channels, add users to chatchannels, send messages to chat channels, and manipulate other aspectsof chat channels.

IRelationshipSystem—Allows components to define and manage socialrelationships among entities. For example friendships, social groups,etc., may be created.

Object Management System—Allows components to define and create objecttypes, i.e. objects that could exist within a world or scene, and objecttemplates, i.e. objects that have been created and objects which arestored in locations within a world or scene.

Layer 2 uses the instance host(s) and service provider to import and/orexport interfaces from/to Layer 1. The instance hosts and serviceprovider, therefore, may act as a Server Application Program Interface(“API”), which determines how Layer 2 can interact with Layer 1. L2components may, therefore, be used export interfaces which have beenimported into L1. L2 components may also be used to “fire” or initiateevents during various processes within a virtual world. These eventsinclude, but are not limited to abilities, permissions, and other typesof notifications within a virtual world.

Layer 1 may also be considered to be a series of workflow interfaces,wherein each workflow interface represents a task the layered systeminfrastructure is capable of carrying out. Workflow interfaces mayinclude, but are not limited to: a “Login workflow”, a “Navigateworkflow” for browsing to a URL, a “Reconnect workflow”, a “CreateWorld” interface, and “Create Persona” interface. These types ofworkflows interfaces have one or more connection or hook points where L2can fire or initiate an event and extend the behavior of the event. AnL2 component may, for example, become involved with a particular L1workflow interface by exporting the appropriate interface from L1. WhenL2 fires or initiates an event at a hook point in a workflow interface,L1 will enumerate interested components. Interested components are thosethat match the workflow interface. L1 will also call enumeratedcomponents and pass a context for the workflow interface, where thecontext includes information, which the L2 component may be able toutilize.

An L2 component may export the following types of interfaces:

ILoginWorkflow—an interface having methods the server can call during auser login workflow

INavigateWorkflow—an interface that handles attempts to navigate to agiven Virtual World Web (VWW) URL.

IAbilityWorkflow—an interface that notifies a component that an abilityis in use by another user or client.

IProviderLifetimeEvents—an interface a service provider can call duringinstallation, uninstallation, or upgrade(s) of an L2 component.

IHostLifetimeEvents—an interface an instance host can call during startup and shut down of the system, allowing a component to initialize.

The layered system components and interfaces described and listed aboveare not to be construed as limiting. Additional components andinterfaces may be derived based upon a combination of one or more of thecomponents and interfaces previously described.

Call Flow Illustrating Operation of Multilayer Component and InterfaceSystem

FIG. 25 illustrates an example of a call flow, implementing a multilayercomponent and interface system, which involves a root server 2502, aservice provider 2504, an instance host 2506, and a client 2508. A rootserver 2502 may serve a component library and component interfaces, andmay be coupled to a database server (not shown). A database server mayinclude definitions for personas and objects, for example. A root server2504 may also provide general services across one or more serviceproviders 2504. These types of services may include user login/logoutservices, user accounting services, accounting of real and/or virtualcurrency, and the like. The communications transmitted and receivedduring use of these services may be encrypted and/or authenticated toensure that unauthorized users may not obtain information from the rootserver 2504.

The service provider 2504 may also include or couple to the database,which provides definitions for persons and objects. However, a serviceprovider will also manage components and instances within a virtualworld system. L2 component selection 2510, therefore, may occur at boththe root server 2502 and the service provider 2504.

An L2 component may be installed 2514 at the service provider 2504 andinstalled 2518 at the instance host 2506. An instance host 2506 servicesinstances, using installed components. In so doing, an instance host canrepresent all of the content that is serviced by the service provider,i.e. information regarding world space and objects in athree-dimensional scene.

The client 2508 may operate a user interface for instances of athree-dimensional scene hosted by the instance host 2506. The client mayalso include input/output devices, for example input devices such askeyboards or key pad, touchscreen, camera, and/or microphone, and outputdevices such as display devices and audio systems. The client 2508 mayinclude other components, for example a browser that may be linked tothe user interface so as to enable seamless transitions betweentwo-dimensional (2D) web content and three-dimensional (3D) virtualworld scenes.

As illustrated at 2510, a service provider in the process of configuringa virtual world may select a set of components as needed to support thedesired functions of the virtual world. The root server 2502 maymaintain a library of all components that are available for supportingvirtual world operations, from which the service provider may selectappropriate components. The service provider 2504 may receive eachselected L2 component and install 2514 the L2 component local forservicing events occurring in virtual world instances. In addition, asshown at 2516, the service provider 2504 may provide a copy of the L2component to the instance host 2506, which may similarly install 2518the L2 component. The foregoing operations may be performed as part ofoperations for setting up a virtual world, and setting up specificinstances of the virtual world on the instance hosts.

A client 2508 operating a 2D web browser may, in response to receivinguser input from an input device, initiate a 2D page request to theservice provider 2504, for example using an HTTP GET request. Inresponse, the service provider 2504 may transmit the requested 2D pageto the client 2508, which may output the page using a display device andbrowser interface. A web browser operating on the client may include a3D plug-in component 2524 that can be selectively activated in responseto user input (U/I) to the client 2508. For example, a user may select a“button” or similar interactive object to activate the 3D plug-in.

Once activated, the 3D plug-in may transmit a 3D page request 2526 tothe service provider 2504. The 3D page request may contain aninstruction or message signifying that the client is seeking access to a3D virtual world scene corresponding to the 2D page. In response toreceiving the 3D page request, the service provider 2504 may communicatewith the root server 2502 using the L1 interface, as shown at 2528. L1workflows at the root server may be used to handle generic operationssuch as authentication and user account management. For example, the L1communications 2528 may be used to verify that a user identified withthe client 2508 is authorized to access the 3D scene requested by the 3Dpage request, to track user requests for accounting or other purposes,and perform other general functions.

If the identified user is confirmed as authorized to access the 3Dscene, the service provider may execute a process 2530 for selecting aninstance host for an appropriate instance of the requested virtual worldscene. If there is no currently available instance, the service providermay transmit a signal to a selected instance host 2506 to open(instantiate) an instance of the requested 3D scene, as shown at 2532.In addition, the service provider 2504 may transmit a message to theclient 2508, directing the client to the instance that is (or will be)instantiated at the instance host 2506, as shown at 2534.

The instance host 2506 may, as shown at 2538, instantiate an instance ofthe virtual world scene, for example by executing one or more of the L2components installed for servicing the virtual world. Such componentsmay pull a collection of documents defining the scene from a database,and then execute one or more components that receive the documentcontents, and process the document contents to instantiate the scene.The instantiation may comprise a state machine generating a sequence ofthree-dimensional scene states, wherein objects in the scene areassigned properties and behaviors according to parameters and rules setsdefined in the documents and/or negotiated between L2 components whenobjects interact. A process of instantiation may include communicatingwith the root server 2502 using the L1 interface to perform generic L1functions as exemplified in the foregoing section. Optionally, theinstance host may confirm availability of the instantiated scene to theclient 2508, as indicated at 2536.

Once the instance of the 3D scene is instantiated, the client device2508 may interact with the instance and cause events within the scene byreceiving user input 2540 via an input device, and in response to theinput, transmitting one or more object-related requests to the instancehost, as indicated at 2542. Multiple additional clients (not shown) maysimilarly receive user input and interact with the scene. The instancehost 2506 may receive and process messages from one or more clientsusing L2 components operating the instances. This may include, forexample, L2 event processing 2544 in cooperation with corresponding L2components operating on the service provider 2504. As previously noted,L2 components may also hook into and therefore trigger L1 workflowsinvolving L1 interface communications (not shown) with the root serverduring instantiation of a 3D scene. In the alternative, or in addition,L2 components may handle events that do not include interfacing with anyL1 workflow.

The instance host 2506 may generate data for viewing the 3D scene, asindicated at 2546. For example, the instance host 2506 may write therespective states of the scene at successive times of a time sequence toa computer memory, including at least position and orientation ofthree-dimensional objects modeled in the scene. The computer memory maycache a stream of time-related data from the instantiation, which theinstance host may provide to the client 2508 as indicated at 2548. Forexample, the instance host 2506 may stream time-related data to theclient 2508 using a streaming protocol. The client 2508 may receive thescene data and process the data using a user interface component togenerate an animated 3D view of the scene, and output the view to theuser via a display device. Accordingly, aspects of the flow 2500comprise a state machine that receives data representing physical inputsfrom user input devices, maps those physical inputs to objects andevents in a 3D model, and outputs the resulting 3D scene to a physicaloutput device. Operations of the flow 2500, for example theinstantiation represented at 2538, depend on physical inputs to providephysical outputs, and may not be ultimately functional or useful withoutsuch inputs and outputs.

Example Methodologies and Apparatus

As shown in FIG. 26, a computer server system may perform a method 2600for generating an instance of a three-dimensional scene, using aspectsof a multilayer component and interface system, shown in FIG. 25. Themethod 2600 may include, at 2610, instantiating, in one or more computermemories, an instance of a three-dimensional scene defined by acollection of document objects, wherein the document objects are encodedin a markup language and defined by respective three-dimensional modeledobjects or spaces. For example, an instance host may retrieve thecollection of documents as identified by a service provider, and processthe documents using one or more L2 components operating as a statemachine.

The method 2600 may further include, at 2620, controlling contents ofthe collection of document objects in response to signals received by aprocessor from one or more client devices. For example, an instanceserver may add or remove documents from the collection in response tosignals from client devices indicating that personas or owned objectsshould enter or leave the scene, or in response to events outcomesdetermined by L2 components in response to user input and a rule set fordetermining event outcomes.

The method 2600 may further include, at 2630, recording, in the one ormore computer memories, a sequence of three-dimensional scene statesbased on respective states of the scene at successive times of a timesequence, including at least position and orientation ofthree-dimensional objects modeled in the scene. For example, theinstance server may write a data stream to a memory cache.

The method may further include, at 2640, providing data representing thesequence of three-dimensional scene states to the one or more clients.For example, the instance server may stream the data to the one or moreclients.

With reference to FIGS. 27-28, one or more of operations 2700 and 2800may optionally be performed as part of method 2600. The elements 2700and 2800 may be performed in any operative order, or may be encompassedby a development algorithm without requiring a particular chronologicalorder of performance. Operations can be independently performed and arenot mutually exclusive. Therefore any one of such operations may beperformed regardless of whether another downstream or upstream operationis performed. For example, if the method 2600 includes at least one ofthe operations 2700 and 2800, then the method 2600 may terminate afterthe at least one operation, without necessarily having to include anysubsequent downstream operation(s) that may be illustrated.

In an aspect, with reference to FIG. 27, the method 2600 may furtherinclude additional operations 2700 for instantiating the instance of ascene. The additional operations may include, at 2710, instantiating theinstance of the scene at least in part by instantiating each of thedocument in the collection. The method 2600 may further include, at2720, instantiating at least one of the document objects at least inparty by creating from a document template received by the processor, acopy of the at least one of the document object in the collection ofdocument objects. The method 2600 may further include, at 2730,organizing a collection of document objects in a hierarchal tree basedon document object properties. The method 2600 may further include, at2740, formatting the data into a format enabling a three-dimensionalanimated display of the scene for a user interface of the one or moreclient.

In other aspects, with reference to FIG. 28, the method 2600 may furtherinclude additional operations 2800 relating to installation ofadditional components. The additional operations may include, at 2810,installing one or more components in the one or more computer memories,which are adapted for supporting the instance of the scene, in responseto receiving an instruction from a server. In another aspect, the method2600 may further include, at 2820, controlling the collection of thedocument objects at least in part by detecting, using the one or morecomponents, executed by the processor, one of the signals which signifyevents that correspond to ones of the document objects. In addition, themethod 2600 may further include, respectively at 2830, 2840 and 2850,generating an information signal in response to detecting the ones ofthe signal signifying events, and transmitting the information signal tothe server, communicating with the server using the one or morecomponents executed by the processor to determine respective outcomes ofthe events, and updating states of one or more of the document objectsin the collection, according to the respective outcomes, and updatingstates of one or more of the document objects in the collection,according to the respective outcomes.

With reference to FIG. 29, there is provided an exemplary apparatus 2900that may be configured as computer server, client device, or combinationof client and server, for instantiating a three-dimensional scene. Theapparatus 2900 may include functional blocks that can representfunctions implemented by a processor, software, or combination thereof(e.g., firmware).

As illustrated, in one embodiment, the apparatus 2900 may include anelectrical component or module 2902 for instantiating an instance of athree-dimensional scene defined by a collection of document objects,wherein the document objects are encoded in a markup language and definerespective three-dimensional modeled objects or spaces. For example, theelectrical component or means 2902 may include at least one controlprocessor 2910 coupled to a memory component 2916. The control processormay operate an algorithm, which may be held as program instructions inthe memory component. The algorithm may include, for example, retrievinga document collection identified by a service provider, processing thecollection to extract information defining a 3D scene, and maintaining acurrent scene state based on the information.

The apparatus 2900 may include an electrical component or module 2903for controlling contents of the collection of document objects inresponse to signals from one or more client devices. For example, theelectrical component or means 2903 may include at least one controlprocessor 2910 coupled to a memory component 2916. The control processormay operate an algorithm, which may be held as program instructions inthe memory component. The algorithm may include, for example,maintaining a current scene state in response to a message stream fromone or more clients signifying requested operations for personas andobjects included in the object collection. The algorithm may furtherinclude calculating a scene state using the inputs to detect eventsoccurring in the scene and a rule set for determining event outcomes.

The apparatus 2900 may further include an electrical component or module2904 for recording a sequence of three-dimensional scene states based onrespective states of the scene at successive times of a time sequence,including at least position and orientation of three-dimensional objectsmodeled in the scene. For example, the electrical component or means2904 may include at least one control processor 2910 coupled to a memorycomponent 2916. The control processor may operate an algorithm, whichmay be held as program instructions in the memory component. Thealgorithm may include, for example, writing successive states to a cachememory to define a data stream.

The apparatus 2900 may further include an electrical component or module2906 for providing data, representing the sequence of three-dimensionalscene states to the one or more clients. For example, the electricalcomponent or means 2906 may include at least one control processor 2910coupled to a memory component 2916 to provide such data. The controlprocessor may operate an algorithm, which may be held as programinstructions in the memory component. The algorithm may include, forexample, streaming a data stream to one or more clients. The apparatus2900 may include similar electrical components for performing any or allof the additional operations 2700 and 2800 described in connection withFIGS. 27-28, which for illustrative simplicity are not shown in FIG. 29.

In related aspects, the apparatus 2900 may optionally include aprocessor component 2910 having at least one processor, in the case ofthe apparatus 2900 configured as a network entity. The processor 2910,in such case may be in operative communication with the components2902-2906 or similar components via a bus 2912 or similar communicationcoupling. The processor 2910 may effect initiation and scheduling of theprocesses or functions performed by electrical components 2902-2906.

In further related aspects, the apparatus 2900 may include a networkinterface component 2914 enabling communication between a client and aserver. The apparatus 2900 may optionally include a component forstoring information, such as, for example, a memory device/component2916. The computer readable medium or the memory component 2916 may beoperatively coupled to the other components of the apparatus 2900 viathe bus 2912 or the like. The memory component 2916 may be adapted tostore computer readable instructions and data for implementing theprocesses and behavior of the components 2902-2906, and subcomponentsthereof, or the processor 2910, or the methods disclosed herein. Thememory component 2916 may retain instructions for executing functionsassociated with the components 2902-2906. While shown as being externalto the memory 2916, it is to be understood that the components 2902-2906can exist within the memory 2916.

ADDITIONAL EMBODIMENTS

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode which include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executedout of order from that shown or discussed, including substantiallyconcurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

All of the methods and tasks described herein may be performed and fullyautomated by a computer system. The computer system may, in some cases,include multiple distinct computers or computing devices (for example,physical servers, workstations, storage arrays, and so forth) thatelectronically communicate and interoperate over a network to performthe described functions. Each such computing device typically includes aprocessor (or multiple processors) that executes program instructions ormodules stored in a memory or other computer-readable storage medium.Where the system includes multiple computing devices, these devices may,but need not, be co-located. The results of the disclosed methods andtasks may be persistently stored by transforming physical storagedevices, such as solid state memory chips and/or magnetic disks, into adifferent state.

All of the methods and processes described above may be embodied in, andfully automated via, software code modules executed by one or moregeneral purpose computers. The code modules may be stored in any type ofcomputer-readable medium or other computer storage device. Some or allof the methods may alternatively be embodied in specialized computerhardware. The results of the disclosed methods be stored in any type ofcomputer data repository, such as relational databases and flat filesystems that use magnetic disk storage and/or solid state RAM.

Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiments, the elements of which are to be understood as being amongother acceptable examples. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure. Theforegoing description details certain embodiments of the invention. Itwill be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoingappears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways. As is alsostated above, the use of particular terminology when describing certainfeatures or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply thatthe terminology is being re-defined herein to be restricted to includingany specific characteristics of the features or aspects of the inventionwith which that terminology is associated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: one or more objects definedaccording to a protocol for a virtual environment; one or more sceneswithin the virtual environment; one or more virtual environments, asubset of which are defined as part of at least one of the virtualenvironments not in the subset; and a database containing informationdefining permissions each of the objects, scenes, and virtualenvironments is permitted to grant to, or exercise against, one or moreof the other objects, scenes, or virtual environments.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising means for realizing the permissions data inan instance of the one or more scenes by limiting the ability ofobjects, scenes, and virtual environments to interact to interactionscompatible with the extent permissions, wherein virtual environments arepermitted to require, permit, preclude, or a combination thereof,permissions of scenes below it in a hierarchy, and scenes are permittedto require, permit, preclude, or a combination thereof, permissions ofobjects below it in a hierarchy.
 3. The system of claim 1, whereindatabase comprises data encoded into objects themselves and notcentrally stored.
 4. A computer system comprising: an object or layercontained within a virtual environment holding templates for generationof one or more other objects or layers within a virtual environment;means for generating said one or more objects or layers; means forinteracting with said one or more objects or layers by one or more usersresulting in at least one alteration to the said objects or layers; andmeans for determining, by reference to permissions data, whether one ormore such alterations should be made persistent with regard to one ormore other objects, other layers, or users.
 5. The computer system ofclaim 26, further comprising means for recording of the extent state ofthe objects or layers.
 6. The computer system of claim 27, furthercomprising means for determining whether a object, layer or user makingchanges in the recorded state had permission to change the instantiationof such object or layer with regard to a second user, object or layer,wherein the second user, object, or layer attempts to instantiate aninstance of the object or layer based stored on said template but alsostored in said recorded state.
 7. The computer system of claim 28,further comprising means for instantiating the template version wheresuch permissions are insufficient, or the recorded version when suchpermissions are sufficient.
 8. The computer system of claim 29, whereinpersistence of the alteration may be time-limited or terminated by anevent.
 9. A method, comprising: storing templates for generation of oneor more objects or layers within a virtual environment; generating saidone or more objects or layers based on said templates; interacting withsaid one or more objects or layers by one or more users resulting in atleast one alteration to the said objects or layers; and determining, byreference to permissions data, whether one or more such alterationsshould be made persistent with regard to one or more other objects,other layers, or users.